Amravati pharmacist murder: NIA court rejects bail plea of veterinarian

A special court in Mumbai rejects bail plea of Yusuf Khan, a veterinarian accused in the murder of pharmacist Umesh Kolhe. The court observed that Khan's act of circulating a message expressing support for objectionable remarks about the Prophet led to the conspiracy to kill Kolhe. The court said the seriousness of the allegations and the interest of the community outweighed Khan's grounds for bail. The NIA claims that Khan intended to spread hatred against the victim and that the murder was a result of a criminal conspiracy.

MUMBAI: The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has rejected the bail plea of Yusuf Khan, a veterinarian, arrested for his alleged role in the murder of Amravati pharmacist Umesh Kolhe.

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Special judge Rajesh Katariya, while rejecting Khan’s plea last week, observed that it was only after he circulated the message about Kolhe’s post, expressing support to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her objectionable remarks about the Prophet, that the conspiracy to eliminate the pharmacist began.

Kolhe, who ran a medical store in Amravati, was going on his way home on his scooter on the night of June 21 when he was accosted by three men on a bike and hacked to death.’

In a detailed order, which became available on Monday, the special judge said, “the applicant forwarded the post sent by the deceased on WhatsApp group to other groups and individuals to avenge the deceased.” The court said Khan’s act of forwarding Kolhe’s message to other groups, spreading hatred against him in their community and his call to others to show the victim the consequences of his acts, “revealed about the intention of the applicant”.

While forwarding Kolhe’s message, Khan had added a message: “Amit Medical Prabhat takiz tehsil ke samane is ko batana hain ke jin logon ke bharose kamai ki unse hi dushmani ka anjam kya hota hai, is message ko zyada se zyada group or gore walo ko send kare.”

In his plea Khan had claimed that the message and the words accompanying it did not suggest that it was a call to kill Kolhe, but it was a call to cattle owners of Amravati for economic boycott—to refrain from purchasing medicines from the pharmacy of the deceased.

The NIA, however, claimed that the message depicted Khan’s intention to spread hatred against the victim in their community and to show him consequence (Is ka Anjam Is ko Dikhana hai) of his support to Nupur Sharma, and thus the criminal conspiracy to eliminate the deceased began.

The federal agency, which probed the case, has in the charge sheet claimed that 11 men arrested for the murder of Kolhe were religiously radicalised and members of Tablighi Jamaat, who were instigated by social activist Irfan Khan and maulvi Mushifique Ahmad.