Amravati Murder Case: NIA Probe Begins. 7 Accused, Including 'Mastermind', Arrested | Updates

An NIA team visited Amravati on Saturday to begin its probe into the murder of Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe. A total of seven accused, including the alleged mastermind behind the killing, have been arrested.

Final moments captured in CCTV footage from the night of June 21 show Amravati-based shop owner Umesh Kolhe | Accused arrested in connection with the murder.

Source : ANI

New Delhi: The crime branch of Amravati city police arrested on Saturday arrested the alleged mastermind behind the killing of a chemist in eastern Maharashtra's Amravati city. This was the seventh arrest in the case. According to the police, the killing was related to social media posts supporting suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma. The arrests were made while the case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs' decision.

Key Updates:

• The crime branch of Amravati city police arrested Irfan Khan (32), a local resident, from Nagpur in the evening, news agency PTI reported. City police commissioner Dr Aarti Singh said that Irfan had allegedly hatched the conspiracy to murder Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe (54), who ran a medical shop in Amravati and it was he roped in others.
  
  
• Earlier, police arrested Mudassar Ahmed alias Sonu Raza Sheikh Ibrahim (22), Shahrukh Pathan alias Badshasha Hidayat Khan (25), Abdul Taufik alias Nanu Sheikh Taslim (24), Shoeb Khan alias Bhurya Sabir Khan (22), Atib Rashid Aadil Rashid (22) and Yusuf Khan Bahadur Khan (44) in connection with Kolhe's killing.
  
  
• An NIA team visited Amravati on Saturday to begin its probe into the case. Earlier, the Union Home Ministry had announced that the investigation has been handed over to the central probe agency.
  
  "MHA has handed over the investigation of the case relating to the barbaric killing of Shri Umesh Kolhe in Amravati Maharashtra on 21st June to NIA," HMO India tweeted. "The conspiracy behind the killing, involvement of organisations and international linkages would be thoroughly investigated," it added. 
  
  
• A team of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of state police from Aurangabad also visited the city, PTI reported ab official as informing.

• Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe's brother Mahesh Kolhe said that he never flagged any threat to his life: "He didn't receive threats from anyone... We were told that during primary investigation, 2-4 people were arrested but some newspapers, without proper investigation started publishing that he was killed because of loot or robbery, but nothing as such happened."

  #WATCH | He didn't receive threats from anyone... We were told that during primary investigation, 2-4 people were arrested but some newspapers, without proper investigation started publishing that he was killed because of loot/robbery, but nothing as such happened: Mahesh Kolhe pic.twitter.com/bXh38FfNYR

  — ANI (@ANI) July 2, 2022

  "We're yet to ascertain the reasons for his murder. He never told us about any threats... he only forwarded some messages on Nupur Sharma...,” Mahesh added, as quoted by news agency ANI.

• Deputy Commissioner of Police Vikram Sali said that some of the accused had watched Kolhe's movements for three days prior to the killing.
  
  
• The police seized the knife used in the crime and obtained the CCTV footage that captured the sequence of events. Two of the accused were arrested on the basis of CCTV footage. 

Umesh Kolhe was stabbed to death at around 10.30 pm on June 21 near Ghantaghar in the Shyam Chowk area of Amravati. According to the police, he was stabbed in the neck by the assailants who rode a motorbike when he was returning home on his two-wheeler after closing his medical shop.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Vikram Sali told the media that on the face of it, the killing was linked to certain posts that Kolhe had shared in WhatsApp groups, supporting Sharma who has been suspended by the BJP for making controversial comments about Prophet Mohammad.

The killing in Amravati had taken place a week before two men hacked to death a tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur before posting videos online saying that they were avenging an insult to Islam. The NIA is also probing the killing of the Udaipur tailor, Kanhaiya Lal.

(With Agency Inputs)