Nand Kishore Rungta, a coal businessman from Jawahar Nagar of Bhelupur police station area of Varanasi, was murdered after being kidnapped on January 22, 1997. After this, on the evening of November 5, 1997, Nand Kishore Rungta's brother Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the case, received bomb threats on his landline not to file a complaint with the police.