The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has officially taken over the probe into Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader Praveen Nettaru’s murder case, officials in the know of the matter said on Friday. The NIA has obtained the custody of five key accused in the case for six days, said the official.
Nettaru,32, was hacked to death on July 26 when he was about to return home after closing his chicken stall at Bellare in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.
The NIA approached the special court on Thursday for custody of the accused till August 23 after the state police completed custodial investigations on August 16, officials said.
The accused taken into custody were identified as Naufal (28), Sainul Abid (22), Mohammed Syed (32), Abdul Basheer (29) and Riyaz (27). Bellare police in Sullia had registered a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the murder. The case was later transferred to NIA.
Karnataka police had found that one of the suspects, Shiyab, is the main conspirator and main attacker. Police said apart from Nettaru, the gang had identified two others as potential targets, but zeroed in on him because he roamed around without associates, unlike the other targets.
A police officer, who was part of the investigation, said that the gang had identified three targets initially. One of the reasons for selecting Praveen as a target was that he was popular following his political works during the anti-halal campaign, said the officer. “As per our investigation, we found the had identified three targets. The attack was a retaliation to the murder of a Muslim youth Masood. Their requirement for selecting the target was that he should be a local, and a prominent leader in the local politics,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}A police officer, who was part of the investigation, said that the gang had identified three targets initially. One of the reasons for selecting Praveen as a target was that he was popular following his political works during the anti-halal campaign, said the officer. “As per our investigation, we found the had identified three targets. The attack was a retaliation to the murder of a Muslim youth Masood. Their requirement for selecting the target was that he should be a local, and a prominent leader in the local politics,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“The accused were eager to attack and they thought that Praveen would be the easiest among the three to attack,” the officer said.
One of the earlier arrested accused Mohammed Shafiq (27) who was nabbed from Bellare village on July 28 and is one of the conspirators in the case, had helped in identifying Nettaru as a target, police said. “Shafiq’s father Ibrahim used to work for Nettaru at his chicken shop. He worked there for more than a year. However, when coastal Karnataka was rocked by controversy over halal meat, Nettaru fired Ibrahim from the job five months ago,” said the officer.
In March this year, Hindu Janajagrithi Samithi, a right-wing organisation in Karnataka called for a campaign against the purchase of halal meat as it is “culled under Islamic practices and cannot be offered to Hindu gods”.
Since Shafiq knew Nettaru, he was able to provide accurate information about his whereabouts and helped in conducting recce of the area, said the police.
The officer said that the murder was executed after considerable planning. “After the murder, the accused left for Kerala. This was pre-decided. Then they moved between Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. They were arrested while they were on the move,” the officer added.