Six more people have been arrested in Karnataka’s Mangaluru in connection with the murder of a 23-year-old Muslim man at Surathkal in the Dakshina Kannada district two days after the killing of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary Praveen Nettaru.
Police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said the six people came together with the aim of “killing someone” at the earliest and planned Mohammed Fazil’s murder for three days. When asked if Fazil was hacked to death on July 28 in retaliation to Nettaru’s killing, Kumar said further interrogation was required to ascertain that.
Police said the six Suhas Shetty, 29, Mohan Singh, 26, Giridhar, 23, Abhishek, 21, Shrinivas, 23, and Dixit, 21, have been involved in several crimes. They cited preliminary investigation and said the accused were planning to kill Fazil since July 26. The accused had a list of about seven but finally decided to kill Fazil after keeping a close watch on him.
“The six people did not know each other, but they came to know each through common friends. Suhas called his friend Abhishek and had a long discussion…he told Abhishek that by the evening of July 26, they should murder someone. They decided to gather more people and weapons for the same,” said Kumar.
He said on July 27, the accused held a meeting and looked for potential targets. “…Fazil was chosen as the target. … Why he was selected in particular is still to be probed.”
On Sunday, the police arrested Ajith Crasta, 34, the owner of the car used for the crime.