The tortured man was jailed for eight days even as Kerehalli and associates roamed free and allegedly killed Idrees in Ramanagara.
Puneeth Kerehalli with his taser stun gun at Electronic City toll plaza on 20 March. (Supplied)
Self-styled cow vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli and his gang tortured two men with a Taser (Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle) 11 days before cattle trader Idrees Pasha was found dead near the Sathanur police station in Ramanagara on 1 April.
Kerehalli and four of his associated were arrested from Rajasthan on 5 April for allegedly murdering Pasha.
The same gang had tased Aleem-Ullah Baig and Rafiq, who were transporting cattle on a pick-up truck, on 20 March.
The gang leader used a stun gun to harass the hapless men for more than two hours at the Electronic City Toll Plaza. He even went live on Facebook, showing him saving the cattle.
The police did not arrest him but picked up Baig for the illegal transport of cattle. He did not complain since the gang had threatened him with dire consequences.
Aleem-Ullah Baig, 33, of Halaganahalli village in Bettadapura hobli in Mysuru’s Piryapattana taluk had been working as a cook in a hotel.
Puneeth Kerehalli and his four associates were arrested in Rajasthan. (Supplied)
As the holy month of Ramadan began, he looked out for a job. A businessman, Nishad, hired him for transporting cattle.
On the first day of his new job, Baig was assigned to transport cattle from Hunsur to Krishnagiri.
“For each load, we were offered between ₹1,000 and ₹1,500,” Baig told South First.
He and driver Rafiq were proceeding towards Krishnagiri in the Mahindra Bolero pick-up truck when Kerehalli and gang flagged them down around 1 pm.
Posing as recovery agents of a finance firm, the men told the duo that the vehicle owner had defaulted on monthly repayment installments. They wanted to know what cargo the truck was ferrying.
“The pick-up truck was brand new, not even three months old. I told the group that there was no chance of defaulting on the EMI. I insisted on confirming it with my employer, but they did not listen,” Baig recalled.
On finding that the truck’s cargo comprised three cows and five calves, Kerehalli asked his men to secure the driver. He then approached Baig and went live on Facebook, boasting about his latest cow rescue.
What followed was two-and-a-half hours of torture. Baig was made to lie in a gunnysack hammock under the vehicle’s roof.
Kerehalli repeatedly tased him, while another gangster, identified as Santhosh, kept slapping him. The gang also broke the vehicle’s windshield.
“Kerehalli asked his associates not to shoot the video while he was administering electric shocks. However, his associates kept shooting the video of him torturing me,” Baig said.
The video later became a piece of evidence against the gang.
The gang leader wanted to know why Baig was illegally ferrying the cattle. The torture continued even after the hapless youth said he was ignorant of the legality involved. He also vowed not to repeat it.
The video also showed Baig pleading to spare him since he was working to feed his family. But the pleas fell on deaf ears. Kerehalli kept tasing Baig on his hips, back, hands, and legs.
The accused was also heard thanking some people in Tumkur, who had alerted him of the pick-up ferrying cattle.
“The police arrived around 3.30 pm. Before they came, Santhosh and Kerehalli threatened us with dire consequences if we complained of being tased or beaten up,” Baig said.
The police took the duo to the station, and based on the gang’s complaint, a case was registered.
“We were arrested, produced before a magistrate, and sent to the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. I was released on bail on 28 March,” Baig said.
As I still have pain due to the electric shocks in my body. I took rest for more than a week. Later, based on my family members’ advice, I complained to the Electronic City Police on 6 April.
According to the standard operating procedure, an arrested person should be subjected to a medical examination. Surprisingly, no marks of receiving electric shocks on Baig’s body have been recorded.
Baig did not tell his family of the torture he had suffered. The family accidentally stumbled upon the video on 1 April. They were shocked to see Kerehalli tasing Aleem.
Idrees Pasha. (Supplied)
The family collected the evidence and advised Baig to lodge a police complaint.
The Electronic City Police registered a case of assault using dangerous weapons (Taser), wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation, and intentional insult-provoking breach of peace among other sections under the IPC.
Besides the prime accused Kerehalli, three others — Santhosh, Chethan, and Deepak — were also identified from the video.
Meanwhile, Kerehalli had gone into hiding after the 1 April death of Pasha, 39. On 5 April, the police arrested him and four of his associates from Rajasthan’s Banswara district.
They were brought to Ramanagara and Sathanur police got their custody on Sunday, 9 April.
Cattle trader Pasha was found dead under mysterious circumstances around 8:30 am on Saturday, 1 April. His body was found about 100m from the truck he was travelling in.
Pasha, a resident of Sabdhariyabad mohalla in Mandya City, the district headquarters of the eponymous district, had been buying and selling cattle in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.
Soon after the Sathanur Police learnt about Pasha’s death, they took a complaint from his brother, Yunus Pasha, and a case was registered against Kerehalli and his associates.
The deceased Pasha was also allegedly tased and hit with hockey sticks.
Tasers can cause severe pain, muscle seizure, ventricular fibrillation (abnormal heart beat) leading to cardiac arrest, affect memory and cognition, and in rare cases affect the kidneys.
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