Hindu partner’s kin got Muslim man decapitated
BENGALURU: The police have arrested 10 people for the murder of a 24-year-old Muslim man whose decapitated body was found 10 days ago by a railway track in Karnataka’s Belagavi district. Among the arrested are the parents of a woman with whom he was in a relationship.
The police confirmed that the murder was a hate crime and the parents of the girl gave a contract to murder the 24-year-old, to the leader of a right-wing religious organisation with the objective of preventing their daughter from marrying a Muslim. Police first registered a case of unnatural death when Arbaz Mullah’s body was found on September 28. Later, a murder case was filed on the basis of his postmortem report and the nature of injuries to his head.
The Belagavi Police said the woman’s parents, Eerappa and Susheela Kumbhar, and Maharaja Nagappa alias Pundalik Mutgekar, a member of Sri Ram Sene Hindustan, are the prime suspects in the murder. Two other suspects in custody, Praveena Shankara and Shreedhara Mahadeva Doney, were relatives of the parents and part of the conspiracy to murder Mullah.
According to police officials, the murder and disposal of the body were carried out by Maruti Pralhad Sugathe, Manjunatha Thukaram Gondali, Ganapathi Jnaneshwara Sugathe, Prashanth Kallappa Patil, and Qutubuddin — five other suspects in police custody.
“On the day of the murder, they called the victim to a location.
They stabbed him to death. They later dismembered the body and dropped it by the railway track to show that it was an accidental death,” said Belagavi (rural) SP Laxman Nimbargi.
A senior officer, who was part of the investigation, said, “The woman’s family decided to take the extreme step when a marriage proposal came for her. The woman was adamant and didn’t agree to the proposal. Then, the parents and two relatives approached Mutgekar.”
Police said the parents met Pundalik Mutgekar multiple times. When Mullah refused to end the relationship, Mutgekar allegedly hired five contract killers to kill him on September 28 and dispose the body.
The arrests come after Mullah’s family complained about the delay in the investigation. In her complaint to the police, the deceased’s mother, Nazeema Mohammad Sheikh, alleged that her son, who was a car dealer, was killed by the family and relatives of a Hindu woman with whom he was in a relationship. Sheikh claimed the two families were aware of the relationship and also alleged the role of two members of a Hindu right-wing group in the murder.
The officer cited above said that even though the mother had named the girl’s father and Mutgekar in the FIR, police conducted a thorough investigation before making the arrests.