Amravati murder case: Court sends key accused to police custody till July 7
India Today
The key accused in the Amravati murder case has been sent to police custody till July 7.
A district court in Amravati has sent the key accused and the mastermind in Umesh Kolhe murder case to police custody till July 7. The accused, identified as Irfan Sheikh, was arrested by Amravati police in Nagpur on Sunday. He is the seventh accused to be arrested in the case.
A 54-year-old chemist was hacked to death in Maharashtra’s Amravati for allegedly making a social media post in support of suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma. Local BJP leaders submitted a letter to police alleging that Kolhe was killed to “take revenge and set an example”.
A chemist identified as Umesh Kolhe (54) was killed on June 21, a week before two men murdered Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur. As per state police, Kolhe was killed between 10 pm and 10.30 pm on June 21 when he was returning home on a two-wheeler after closing his shop.
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After the FIR was lodged, Maharashtra Police initially arrested five people in connection with the murder. On Saturday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team will probe the murder after it emerged that the crime might be linked to a social media post.
"My brother forwarded some messages about Nupur Sharma to some WhatsApp groups but we are not able to understand why he was killed because of those forwarded messages," Mahesh Kolhe, the victim's brother told India Today.
A total of seven accused have been arrested so far in this case. The other accused have been identified as Muddsir Ahemad (22), Shahrukh Pathan (25), Abdul Thoufique (24), Shoaib Khan (22) and Atib Rashid (22), all residents of Amravati and daily wage workers.
