Mumbai A special court on Thursday remanded all the seven accused arrested by the Amravati police in connection with brutal murder of a pharmacist, purportedly over his social media post supporting former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma, to the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till July 15.
The order came after the federal agency informed the court that it was not a simple case of murder, but a larger group was suspected to be involved in it and the crime was committed to terrorise people.
The NIA on Thursday produced all the seven accused before the special NIA judge AK Lahoti and sought their 15 days custody remand, claiming that there was prima facie evidence to suggest that the accused were involved in terrorist activities.
A special prosecutor for the agency claimed that it was not a simple case of murder, but the crime was committed with an intention to terrorise people. He maintained that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy and the agency had collected incriminating material suggesting that the group arrested from Amravati was involved in terrorist activities.
Outside the court, a NIA official said the intention behind killing both the persons – the tailor from Udaipur and the pharmacist from Amravati – could be the same, but at least at this preliminary stage there appears no link between the two incidents.
Defence lawyers, advocate Ali Kaashif Khan, and advocate Sharif Shaikh, who represented the accused persons opposed the prayer for their custody remand, contending that the stringent provisions of the UAPA were not applicable to the case, as the investigating agency had not specified the name of the banned terrorist organisation.
They said the murder was an unfortunate incident and some of the accused had not even objected to their police custody remand earlier, but claimed that no grounds existed for invoking sections 16, 18 and 20 of the UAPA against the accused persons, as the stringent sections could be invoked only against alleged or suspected members of a banned terrorist organisation appearing in the schedule to the UAPA.
“There is no terrorist organisation mentioned anywhere,” advocate Shaikh asserted. “Section 16 of the UAPA states that there has to be a terrorist organisation involved (for invoking the section),” he added.
The NIA prosecutor, however, maintained that there was evidence to suggest that the accused were involved in terrorist activities and it was a large group and not limited only to Amravati. He, however, refused to divulge details, claiming that the case was highly sensitive and the agency will reveal the information at appropriate stage. The prosecutor added that the NIA suspects involvement of some more persons in the group and search was on to track them down.
After hearing both the sides, the special court remanded the seven accused to NIA custody till July 15.
According to 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 neck. Kolhe was taken to nearby Axon hospital, where he was declared dead during treatment.
The killing had come amid widespread tensions sparked by now suspended Nupur Sharma, who made derogatory statements against Prophet Mohammad. Days after Kolhe’s death, a tailor in Udaipur was beheaded by two men over a similar issue.
Amravati city police had arrested the seven persons, including Muddasar Ahmad (22), Shahrukh Pathan (25), Abdul Taufiq (24) Shoaib Khan (22), Atib Rashid (22) and Yusuf Khan (32) and alleged mastermind Shaikh Irfan Shaikh Rahim, in connection with the murder, and search was on for another accused.
Following orders issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the NIA on July 2 took over the case and on Wednesday took all the seven accused arrested by Amravati city police in their custody. On Wednesday, NIA also conducted searches at 13 places in Amravati and claimed to have seized pamphlets spreading hate messages, knives, mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards and other incriminating documents.