NIA arrests three PFI workers in BJP member Praveen Nettaru's killing
Praveen Nettaru was a resident of Bellare and served as the district secretary of Bellare and district secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha. He was hacked to death by PFI workers on the night of July 26.
The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested three Popular Front of India (PFI) workers in Bengaluru and Dakshina Kannada district in connection with the killing of BJP Yuva Morcha member Praveen Nettaru.
BJP Yuva Morcha member Praveen Nettaru was hacked to death by workers of radical Islamist outfit PFI (flag shown in picture) on July 26 in Bellare town of Karnataka.
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The agency carried out searches at five locations in Dakshina Kannada, Hubbali and Mysuru. During the searches, digital devices and incriminating documents were seized from the houses of accused.
Three PFI workers named K Mahammad Iqbal, K Ismail Shafi and Ibrahim were the three arrested by the NIA over thei active involvement in the conspiracy to kill Nettaru. Till now, a total of ten people have been arrested in the murder case. The agency has also declared reward against four absconding accused in the case and efforts to nab them are underway.
Nettaru was a resident of Bellare and served as the district secretary of Bellare and district secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha.
According to the NIA FIR, Nettaru had shut his chicken shop at 8:30 pm on July 26. He was about to go home in his bike and the complaint went inside the shop to bring his rain coat.
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After the complainant heard shouting outside the shop, he came out to see Nettaru lying on the road. Three assailants fled the spot on their bike with sharp weapons in their hand.
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After the complainant heard shouting outside the shop, he came out to see Nettaru lying on the road. Three assailants fled the spot on their bike with sharp weapons in their hand.
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Nettaru had received serious injuries on his head and was taken to Pragathi Hospital in Puttur town. The doctor declared him dead after examining him.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
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Home/India News/NIA arrests three PFI workers in BJP member Praveen Nettaru's killing
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