Bhubaneswar, Sep 4 (PTI) Odisha and Chhatisgarh police will conduct a joint probe into a threat letter sent to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, a top police official said here Tuesday, adding a Bilaspur jail inmate was interrogated in this connection.

The sender of the letter has been traced to the central jail in Bilaspur in Chhatisgarh, DGP in-charge and ADG, crime branch, Santosh Upadhayay told newsmen here.

Pushpendra Nath Chouhan, who is serving a jail term since 2009 in connection with dacoity and murder cases, had sent the threat letter to Patnaik by post demanding Rs 50 crore ransom, Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Arif Sheikh had said yesterday.

Upadhayay said Odisha Police has taken the matter seriously and a preliminary investigation revealed that the sender was mentally unsound.

"We verified the matter with the authorities of the central jail who confirmed that murder convict Pushpendra Nath Chouhan had sent the letter to the chief minister and he is mentally unsound and has more than 40 cases pending against him in different police stations in Chhattisgarh," he said.

The jail authorities also informed the state police that the convict has been posting such letters to be in the limelight, the officer added.

The Odisha Police had received the ransom letter on August 25. Besides demanding a ransom of Rs 50 crore, the letter had also threatened Patnaik with dire consequence if his demands were not met.

Chouhan is a native of Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh, police added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)