The chief minister’s residence in Patna. Telegraph picture

Patna, Aug. 31: The security at 1 Aaney Marg, the official residence of chief minister Nitish Kumar, has been beefed up in the wake of an anonymous caller’s alleged threat to blow up the bungalow.

Senior officials of the special branch are busy ascertaining the identity of the caller.

Sources said the employees on duty at the CM residence received a phone call early this morning. The caller said that the bungalow would be blown up with dynamites if his colleagues, who were languishing in jail, were not released.

The phone call sent the policemen drafted for the CM security into a tizzy. “There is nothing serious. Such threats are a routine affair. It may be the handiwork of some disgruntled elements but police are verifying it,” said a police officer posted at the chief minister’s residence.

All the senior police officers are tight-lipped and nobody is willing to make any official comment on the issue.

Sources said earlier an anonymous caller had threatened to blow up the secretariat, which houses the offices of the government departments. Security was strengthened in the secretariat as a precautionary measure.

Rajini Devi, wife of sub-inspector Abhay Yadav, called on chief minister and urged him to get her husband freed from the clutches of the Maoists, who held him captive along with other policemen during an operation in Kakhisarai district on Sunday.

The chief minister is learnt to have assured her of all possible help to the family. Devi accompanied by daughter and a relative Ajeet Kumar came to Patna from Khagaria after she received a phone call from the Maoists.

The caller, who introduced himself as a member of the CPI(Maoist), informed her that her husband was safe in their custody.

“The caller said that they would release my husband only when their eight colleagues were released from jail,” Devi told Nitish, urging the latter to initiate steps to ensure safe release of Yadav, a 1994 batch sub-inspector.

The chief minister immediately summoned the director-general of police Neel Mani and inquired about the development in connection with the release of the policemen from Maoists’ captivity. The DGP reportedly told the CM that search operation was going on in the forests.

Earlier, in the day spokesman of the CPI(Maoist) Avinash gave an ultimatum to the state administration to release the eight leaders, including area commanders Jai Paswan and Ajay Paswan.

Avinash, who rang up the offices of the local newspapers, said they would eliminate four policemen, two from the district police and two from the Bihar military police, if their leaders were not freed by September 1 (till 4 pm).

The family members of the captive police personnel, Abhay Yadav, Rupesh Kumar (both sub-inspectors) and Lukesh Tete and Ehsan Khan, jamadar and havildar of Bihar military police respectively are worried over their fate.

“The Maoists will release the captive policemen only after their demands are met with,” said Ajeet Kumar, who accompanied Abhay Yadav’s wife during her visit to the top brass of the state administration.