Ranchi police arrested a youth who was allegedly threatening assembly speaker Aalamgir Aalam, ministers and legislators through SMS.

The police arrested Ranjan Kumar Mishra Friday from Dhruva locality of Ranchi and claimed he had confessed to sending SMSes to legislators and ministers.

The police also claimed to have seized five mobile phones and eight SIM cards from Mishra.

The police alleged that Mishra was a leader of a criminal gang and that three other gang members had been arrested in Patna, the capital of neighbouring capital Bihar, in other cases.

'The youth was using a Delhi based mobile number to send SMS to threaten ministers and legislators,' M.S. Bhatia, senior superintendent of police, told reporters.

The reason for his sending the threatening SMSes is not known yet.

Mishra's SMS threats had created panic among the legislators and ministers of the state.

Former minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator Ramesh Singh Munda received the first SMS. The SMS said that he would be killed by April 2.

Speaker Aalam, former chief minister Arjun MUnda, Water Resources Minister Kamlesh Singh and others received similar SMSes.

The JD-U legislator lodged a complaint in Bundu police station of Ranchi.

Interestingly, the speaker, legislator and former chief minister received similar SMSes on the day of Holi and a day later. All of them received a threat that they would be killed by April 2.