Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anant Kumar Hegde on Sunday allegedly received a late-night phone call threatening to kill him. The minister’s personal assistant has lodged a complaint at Sirsi New Market Police Station. Police has registered a case under sections 504 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code. Taking to Twitter, the minister said he received the threat call around 2:30 am and that the caller was speaking in Kannada. “I am used to receiving threat calls for a long time now. Last night around 2.30am, on my landline, I received a couple of blank calls before the third call started abusing and threatening to chop me to pieces, before I disconnected the call. The caller was speaking in Kannada,” he posted on the micro-blogging site.

Accusing the Congress-led government of “pleasing Jihadi forces”, the minister said he has no expectations from the administration despite lodging a complaint against the caller in Sirsi. Keeping in mind that the death threat came a week after his escort Vehicle was “deliberately” hit by a truck in Karnataka’s Haveri district, the minister said, “Such is the ineffectiveness and incompetence of the police under the present @INCIndia govt., Within 24 hrs of the incidence of hitting my vehicle near #Ranebennur, last week the investigating police team was in a hurry to conclude that there was no intention of murder.”

The minister had earlier claimed that he was the target of a failed assassination bid after a car in his convoy was hit by a truck last Tuesday. He had tweeted a video of the incident, adding that it showed it was “quite evident” that he was “purposefully” targeted. “A deliberate attempt on my life seems to have been executed just now. A truck on NH, near Halageri in Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district has hit my escort vehicle which tried to hit my vehicle in the first instance. Since our vehicle was in top speed we escaped the hit,” Hegde had said.