Mohammed Fazil's Murder Linked to Killing of BJP Leader Nettaru: Mangaluru Police
New Delhi: The Manguluru Police has confirmed that the killing of 23-year-old Mohammed Fazil in the Surathkal region of Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district on July 26 is linked to the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth leader Praveen Nettaru, the Indian Express has reported.
The police on Tuesday, August 3, said that Fazil's murder was part of a "conspiracy" hatched in the backdrop of the BJP leader's killing. Fazil's name was among a group of six people whom the assailants wanted to target, the police added.
According to the IE report, Mangaluru Police commissioner, N. Shashikumar, said they were investigating to find out who the other five targets were whom the gang of six assailants wanted to kill.
The six-member gang has now been arrested. Police said all of them have criminal antecedents and cases were recorded against them in Mangaluru City and Dakshina Kannada district.
Among the arrested were Suhas Shetty (29), who has a murder case and two assault cases registered against him; Mohan Singh alias Nepali Mohan (26), Giridhar (23), Abhishek (25), and Srinivas Katipalla (23) already have two criminal cases pending against them. Twenty-one-year Deekshit Katipalla has three previous cases pending against him.
The police said two of the accused were earlier linked to a local gangster in the Kodikere area who was involved in communal assaults.
Fazil was fatally attacked in Surathkal located on the outskirts of Mangaluru city on July 28 by four men, after they chased him in a car. When Fazal ran into a clothing store for cover and to escape, the attackers charged at him with machetes even as locals threw various things at them to scare them away. According to onlookers, Fazal was attacked even after he fell to the ground unconscious.
The murder was caught on CCTV cameras installed outside and inside the clothing store. The police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the Surathkal, Panambur, Mulky and Bajpe police station limits for two days after Fazal's murder.
Also read: Prohibitory Orders in Mangaluru After Two Murders, CM to Hold Review Meeting With Police
"It has emerged from our investigation that Mohammed Fazil was specifically targeted. They kept a watch over his house, identified him and then targeted him. It was not a case of mistaken identity,” commissioner Shashikumar said, according to the IE report.
Shashikumar further said one of the killers knew Fazal and also tracked his movements before plotting the murder.
The assailants on July 26 (the day when Nettaru was killed) had "resolved to murder someone" and held discussions on the same over phone, the police official added.
"They later met and discussed, and in this situation, a murder was committed. We cannot say whether it (the killing) was linked to any other crime. Once we investigate them in custody, all the details will emerge,” the IE report quoted Shashikumar as saying. He also added that they cannot rule out any personal animosity between the attackers and the targets, including Fazal.
According to the police, Suhas Shetty, Abhishek, and Mohan Singh were the main attackers. Shetty was also named as an accused in the murder of an 18-year-old in Manguluru in May 2020. Separately, Shetty along with Abhishek was booked in another case of assault which took place at a bar in Mangaluru in 2015 but was later acquitted.
Police in Dakshina Kannada district has been probing to establish if there are any links between the murders of Fazal and Nettaru on July 26, and another murder of 18-year-old Masood on July 19. Two persons allegedly linked to the Islamist Popular Front of India group have been arrested in the Nettaru murder case. According to the police, members belonging to Bajrang Dal allegedly killed Masood following a fight over a trivial issue.
The three murders in a span of 10 days have once brought to the fore the highly polarised environment in the Dakshina Kannada and Mangaluru regions, which are infamous for gangsters who, for acceptability, take up Hindutva causes and benefit from political patronage.
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