The Karachi Bakery in Bengaluru has been the subject of threats over the past week with 12-15 men entering the premises in Indiranagar and questioning the manager about the origin of the chain's name.
Most recently, a caller who identified himself as 'Vicky Shetty', an underworld don, told the bakery manager that if he didn't remove the word 'Karachi', his men will destroy everything. The incident took place on Monday.
A case has been filed with Indiranagar police station under section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code.
Investigations revealed that the caller used Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) to hide the origin and location of the call. Hence, the police do not know if it was actually Vicky Shetty or an impersonator.
According to a report by Times of India, the call was made at 1 pm on Monday and was received by the bakery's manager Sukumar P. The caller, claiming to be Vicky Shetty, asked if he was speaking to the owner of the bakery. Sukumar said that he was the manager of this branch.
"I told him I wasn't the owner. He then told me to inform my owner to remove 'Karachi' from the name board as no one in India was using that name," Sukumar was quoted as saying by TOI. He added, "The caller warned that we must remove the word within 24 hours or else his boys would destroy the bakery."
Earlier, Karachi Bakery, which is based out of Hyderabad in Telangana, had issued a statement saying that the company is very much Indian and was started by Khamchand Ramnani, who migrated to India during partition. Due to the protests, the bakery was forced to cover the word Karachi in its name and put up an Indian Flag.
Who is Vicky Shetty?
Vicky Shetty is an underworld don who runs criminal rings in Karnataka. Shetty is a wanted criminal by the Dakshin Kannada and Mangalore district police for murder and criminal conspiracy.
He allegedly ran criminal activities along the coast of Karnataka last year. The Dakshin Kannada police allege that Shetty was the person behind Abdul Jaleel's murder in 2017 due to political and personal animosity.