Amravati murder case: Police arrest mastermind of Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe's brutal killing

With the arrest of one more accused from Maharashtra’s Pune, a total of seven people have been arrested so far in the brutal murder of the chemist in Amravati, after he wrote a post in support of now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Facebook, said Nilima Araj, Police Inspector, City Kotwali police station, Amravati.

TN National Desk

Updated Jul 2, 2022, 22:16 IST

Amravati killing: A view of an incident site where a 54-yr-old medical shop owner Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe was killed for alleged social media post backing Nupur Sharma, in the Amravati district of Maharashtra.

Photo : ANI

Amravati (Maharashtra): The police on Saturday arrested the mastermind of the killing of Amravati-based shop owner Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe on June 21.

Mastermind Shaikh Irfan Shaikh Rahim was arrested on Saturday evening in Maharashtra's Nagpur, said Nilima Araj, Police Inspector, City Kotwali police station, Amravati.

With this, a total of seven people have been arrested so far in the brutal murder of the chemist, after he wrote a post in support of now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Facebook, according to police.

The other six accused, who have been arrested, are Mudassir Ahmad (22), Shah Rukh Pathan (25), Abdul Thoufique (24), Shoaib Khan (22), Atib Rashid (22) and Yusufkan Bahadur Khan (44).

Meanwhile, Mahesh Kolhe, brother of the slain chemist refuted the reports linking the murder of Kolhe with robbery and said that the reasons behind the killing are yet to be ascertained.

“We were told that during the 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,” he told news agency ANI.

Giving details about the incident, Kolhe said, “On June 21 night, while my brother was en route to his home after shutting his shop, some people attacked him and he was stabbed with a knife. When I reached there, he was already dead.”

The brother further said that Kolhe forwarded some messages on Nupur Sharma in some Whatsapp groups, but not to anyone individually.

Though the reason behind Kolhe’s murder is not clear yet, the police suspect that the accused committed the offence as the victim had allegedly shared a post on a social messaging platform in support of Sharma, whose remarks on Prophet Mohammad in a television debate led to nationwide protests and global condemnation.

Earlier on the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the probe into the murder case.

Exactly a week after Kolhe’s murder, a tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli was hacked to death in Rajasthan’s Udaipur on June 28. After killing Lal, the assailants posted videos online saying that they were avenging an insult to Islam.

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