Meanwhile, the BJP is building a house for Praveen Nettaru's family at a cost of ₹60 lakh in Bellare in the Dakshina Kannada district.
Published Nov 05, 2022 | 8:24 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 05, 2022 | 8:26 PM
Slain BJP activist Praveen Nettaru. (Supplied)
Continuing the investigations into the BJP youth wing leader Praveen Nettaru’s murder case, the officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday, 5 November, carried out searches at multiple locations and arrested three people in Bengaluru and the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.
According to an official statement from the NIA, the searches were carried out at five locations across the Dakshina Kannada, Hubballi, and Mysuru districts of the state.
The 32-year-old Nettaru, a resident of the Bellare village and the district secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha, was allegedly murdered with sharp-edged weapons by cadres of the Popular Front of India (PFI) on 26 July. The allegations were that they wanted to strike terror among the people in the district.
The case was initially registered at the Bellare police station in the Dakshina Kannada district, but taken over by the NIA on 4 August.
During the searches that were conducted on Saturday, digital devices and incriminating documents were seized from the houses of the three accused and other suspects who have been detained.
NIA conducts searches at multiple locations and arrests 3 in Bengaluru and Dakshina Kannada District in the Praveen Nettaru Murder Case (RC-36/2022/NIA/DLI) pic.twitter.com/H1ziI6xQGJ
— NIA India (@NIA_India) November 5, 2022
The three accused were arrested for their active involvement in the conspiracy hatched to the murder of Praveen Nettaru, said the NIA.
It identified the accused as K Mahammad Iqbal, a resident of Kunha Gudde in the Bellare village of the Sullia taluk of the Dakshina Kannada district; K Ismail Shafi, a resident of Shafi Apartment from the same village; and Ibrahim Shah, a resident of Gandhinagar in the Kasaba village from the same taluk.
With these, the total number of arrests in connection with the Praveen Nettaru murder case went up to 13.
According to senior police officials, 10 people have been already arrested in connection with the murder, of whom seven have been booked for conspiring to kill him.
The first arrests in the case were of Zakir and Shafiq on 28 July, followed by the arrest of Saddam and Harris on 2 August 2.
Junaid, Abid, and Naufal were arrested by the police on 7 August. Shiyabuddin, Riyaz (27), and Bashir (29) were arrested on 11.
All of them were booked under Sections 16 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, and IPC Sections 302, 120B, and 34. The accused hail from Sullia and Subramanya, the police said.
On Wednesday, BJP state president and Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and other BJP leaders participated in a Bhoomi Puja for the construction of a new house for Praveen Nettaru’s family in the Sullia taluk.
The house which is around 2700 square feet, will be built by the party and handed over to Nettaru’s family. The cost of building the house is estimated to be around ₹60 lakh, BJP party workers said.
The state government confirmed in September that it had offered a contract government job to Praveen Nettaru’s wife Nutana Kumari.
The Chief Minister’s Office had been working on a job profile suiting Kumari based on her educational qualification. The job was that of a senior assistant at the Chief Minister’s secretariat office with a remuneration of ₹30,350 per month, the government order stated.
