Film publicist Dale Bhagwagar filed a complaint with Sadar police, Nagpur, yesterday evening stating that he had received threat calls from an unidentified person a day before. The caller had allegedly told Dale to refrain from speaking to the media about singer-actor Sonu Nigam's allegations of sexual harassment against Jha. Dale is the singer's spokesperson and had been informing the media about Sonu's charges.

In his complaint, Dale said that Jha had sent him an sms on July 17 wanting to speak to him. Dale has replied in the negative and requested Jha not to try to contact him again. The threat call came a few hours later. The caller had allegedly addressed Jha as "Bihar journalist" and warned Dale of dire consequences.

The publicist had initially treated the call as phoney but was convinced when a "crime reporter" friend tipped him off about "danger to his life from goons from Bihar".

"Mr Jha has been calling my client Shilpa Shetty, who is now in the UK, and has been asking her to tell me to shut my mouth. Ms Shetty informed me about this today morning," the complaint added.