The Karnataka Police on Friday arrested ten people in connection with the alleged murder of a 24-year-old man in the Belagavi district, The Indian Express reported.
The man, Arbaaz Mullah, had gone missing on September 27. His beheaded and mutilated body was found on a railway track in the Khanapura taluk the next day.
Mullah’s mother Nazima Sheikh alleged in her complaint to the police that he was murdered because he was in an interfaith relationship with a Hindu woman.
The parents of Mullah’s girlfriend – Eerappa Basavanni Kumbara (54) and Susheela Eerappa (42) – are among the arrested accused.
The other persons who have been arrested are Pundalika Maharaj (39), Kuthabuddhin Allahbaksh (36), Maruthi Prahlad (30), Manjunath Thukaram (25), Ganapathi Jnaneshwara (27), Prashanth Kallappa (28), Praveen Shankar (28) and Shridhar Mahadeva Doni (31).
Belagavi Superintendent of Police Laxman Nimbargi told The Indian Express that the woman’s parents hired the men to kill Mullah.
The police have named Maharaj as the prime accused. They said he had formed a team to get Mullah killed.
Meanwhile, Nazima Sheikh told The News Minute that she accompanied Mullah to meet members of the Sri Rama Sena Hindustan on September 26, two days before her son was found dead.
The organisation is said to be a breakaway faction of Hindutva organisation Sri Ram Sena, headed by Pramod Muthalik.
Doctors from the Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences who conducted an autopsy on Mullah’s body told the news website that the 24-year-old was stabbed on his neck and back around the time of his death. They said that the autopsy points to a homicidal death.
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