Mumbai The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday remanded two more persons arrested by the federal agency in the murder of pharmacist Umesh Kolhe to NIA custody till August 12.
The NIA had arrested the two – Abdul Arbaz and Maulavi Mushfique – on Tuesday for allegedly harbouring one of the seven accused arrested earlier in the case.
Both residents of Amravati, the accused are allegedly associates of the earlier arrested seven persons – Irfan Shaikh, Shoaib Khan, Mudassir Ahmed, Aatif Rashid, Yusuf Khan, Abdul Toufiq and Shahrukh Pathan and one wanted accused Shamim Ahmed Firoj Ahmed, the anti-terror probe agency had said in a statement on Wednesday.
The agency on Friday claimed to have found Mushfique’s connection with Irfan Shaikh by way of calls between them after the murder. Arbaz was working as a driver with the organisation run by Irfan.
NIA said that they have invoked section 19 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for harbouring terrorists. Defense lawyer advocate Kashif Ali Khan had objected to the invocation of UAPA section, contending that none of the arrested accused was declared as terrorists.
The federal agency is probing a larger conspiracy in the murder of Kolhe as well as a tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur on June 28. Both were targeted by radical elements following suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s statement on the Prophet Mohammed during a television debate. The NIA said that the intent of the accused was to terrorise people.
According to the Amravati police, on June 21, three men followed 54-year-old Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe on a bike, when the chemist was on his way back home on a scooter at about 10 pm. The three men stopped his scooter and one of them stabbed him on the left side of the neck. Kolhe was taken to nearby Axon hospital, where he succumbed to the injuries.