Centre hands over probe into Suhas Shetty murder to NIA

Union Home Ministry hands over murder case of Hindutva activist to NIA due to national security concerns.

The Union Home Ministry on Saturday, June 7, handed over the investigation into the murder of 30-year-old Suhas Shetty, a Hindutva activist and accused in two murder cases, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), considering the “the gravity of the offence, its national ramifications as well as the need to unearth the larger conspiracy”.

It said, “The Central government has received information regarding registration of FIR no. 0080/2025 dated 01.05.2025 by the Karnataka police at Bajpe police station in, District - North Sub-Division, Mangaluru city, Karnataka, under sections 189(4), 191(2), 191(3), 126(2), 109, 118(1), 103(1), 61(1), 62, 351(2), 351(3), 190 of the BNS, 2023, and sections 3(1), 25 of the Arms Act, 1959, pertaining to attack on one Suhas Shetty on 01.05.2025 while he was travelling in a car along with a few others, by one Safwan with eight other persons, and the attack resulted in critical injuries to Suhas Shetty and others, and he subsequently succumbed to them in a hospital.”

In this case, the Ministry said, sections 10 read with 41, 13, 15, 17, 18, and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, dealing with unlawful associations and terrorist activities, were attracted. The case relates to the targeted killing of an individual in public view with the intention to create terror in the minds of people, and the accused persons involved in the case were allegedly members of the Popular Front of India (PFI), an unlawful association.

In view of the circumstances mentioned, the Central government was of the opinion that a scheduled offence under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, had been committed in the instant case and having regard to the gravity of the offence, its national ramifications as well as the need to unearth the larger conspiracy, it was required to be investigated by the NIA.

The Ministry directed the NIA to take up the investigation into the case in exercise of the powers conferred under sub-section (5) of section 6 read with section 8 of the NIA Act.

On the night of May 1, Shetty, who was travelling along with his associates, was chased and hacked to death in full public view by a group of people in Bajpe town. The victim was the main accused in the murder of 23-year-old Mohammed Fazil, a resident of Katipalla-Surathkal, who was killed in front of a shop in Surathkal on July 28, 2022. Fazil was murdered two days after the killing of BJP activist Praveen Nettaru at Bellare in Sullia taluk on July 26, 2022.

The Bajpe police have so far arrested 11 persons in the Shetty murder case.