Kerehalli and four of his associates are accused in the murder of cattle trader Idrees Pasha, an act the police said took place on 31 March.
Published Aug 13, 2023 | 4:50 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 13, 2023 | 6:11 PM
Puneeth Kerehalli with his taser stun gun at Electronic City toll plaza on 20 March. (Supplied)
The 32-year-old murder-accused cow vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli was booked under the Goonda Act and arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials on the night of Friday, 11 August.
Kerehalli shot to fame in Karnataka subsequent to his Facebook live streaming of his vigilante activities, including attacking cattle traders using a taser gun.
Kerehalli and four of his associates are accused in the murder of cattle trader Idrees Pasha, an act that the police said took place on 31 March this year. They were even arrested in connection with the case.
The CCB officials, armed with an order to book Kerehalli under the Goonda Act, said after his latest arrest: “This person has repeatedly been involved in criminal activities with the objective of extortion in the name of Rashtra Rakshana Pade (Nation Protection Force).”
They added: “He used to target cow slaughters/transporters by threatening their businesses, thereby committing a breach of peace and communal harmony and thus adversely affecting peace and public order.”
They also said that there were 10 criminal cases registered against him at various police stations in Karnataka.
With Kerehalli being booked under the Goonda Act, he is required to remain in prison for at least one year without bail.
The Karnataka Goonda Act was enacted in 1985 to curb activities of “anti-social” elements who frequently disturbed the “even tempo of life” — especially in “urban areas”.
The act extended to “bootleggers, drug offenders, gamblers, goondas, immoral traffic offenders and even slum grabbers”.
According to the Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum-Grabbers Act, a goonda is a person who either by himself or as a member of or leader of a gang, habitually commits or attempts to commit or abets the commission of offences that are punishable under Chapter VIII, Chapter XV, Chapter XVI, Chapter XVII or Chapter XXII of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
South First recently reported about Puneeth Kerehalli, who once again made headlines when he put up an open invitation online to worship Naga Devaru — the Serpent God — at a ground belonging to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in Upparpet in west Bengaluru on 9 July.
Prior to the commencement of the worship, the Upparpet police issued a notice to Kerehalli seeking to know if he had taken permission from the authorities concerned to hold such an event at a public space.
According to the existing rules, organisers should get the permission of the local civic body — the BBMP in this case — and the police for an event if it is open to the general public.
The police notice to Kerehalli angered the BJP, and it played the Hindu card.
“Why do only Hindus have rules for praying together that no other religion has?” it had asked the Congress government.
It was then the city police decided to issue a show-cause notice to Kerehalli — a native of the Hassan district who has settled in JP Nagar in south Bengaluru — asking him for an explanation as to why a rowdy sheet should not be opened against him as there were 10 criminal cases — including a murder case — pending against him.
He has been out on bail for the murder case involving cattle trader Idrees Pasha in Ramanagara.
He has also been booked under the Arms Act as he was using a taser gun to administer electric shocks to his victims, who were mostly cattle traders and transporters, the police said.
In April this year, the Ramnagara police arrested Kerehalli and his associates from Banswara district in Rajasthan, where they were hiding after allegedly murdering a 39-year-old cattle trader named Idrees Pasha.
Kerehalli and the gang reportedly chased the victim after waylaying his truck before killing him on 31 March. The incident occurred near the Santhemale Circle, close to the Sathanur Police Station in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka.
Eleven days before Pasha’s murder, the gang allegedly tortured two men with a taser gun.
A video that the gang shot, to brag about their actions, went viral on social media and the family members of one of the assaulted men forced him to complain to the Electronic City police.
Self-styled cow vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli and his associates had apparently been carrying out their activities for the past one-and-a-half years, especially on the outskirts of Mandya.
Members of the group were said to gather information about cattle transport and intercept vehicles on their own on the highways.
Cow Vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli with MP Tejasvi Surya.
Once the vehicles were caught with cattle, they informed the police, who arrived and seized the truck, took it to cow shelters, “rescued” the cattle, seized the vehicle, and booked the transporters and the owner of the vehicle.
According to his social media profile, Kerehalli was apparently closely associated with the founder of a rightwing outfit “Yuva Brigade”, Chakravarty Sulibele.
He was also apparently close to Pramod Muthalik, the controversial leader of the equally controversial outfit Sri Ram Sene.
Kerehalli posted photos of himself posing with BJP leaders like the party’s national general secretary CT Ravi, former Karnataka ministers CN Ashwath Narayana and BC Nagesh, MPs Tejasvi Surya and Pratap Simha, national spokesperson Kapil Mishra, and Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on his social media pages.
