new Delhi
The police in Indian state of Karnataka have con-firmed that 24-year-old Muslim youth Arbaaz was killed by contract killers. The decapitated body of Arbaaz was found on rail-way tracks in Belagavi on September 28.
His family says that Arbaz was killed on the charges of being in relationship with a Hindu girl. The police said the killers were hired by the parents of the girl.
The police have also made ten arrests for the brutal killing, including the parents of Hindu girl and the member of extremist Hindu group Sri Ram Sena Hindustan, apart from seven other contract killers. In the press release, the police say several other accused have been identified.
The police said extensive material and digital evi-dence has been collected, which points that the woman’s family was opposed to her interfaith rela-tionship.
They approached Pundalik Mutgekar alias Maharaja Nagappa, a member of the extremist group Sri Ram Sena Hindustan – which is an off-shoot of another notoriously violent right-wing group Sri Ram Sene, to kill Arbaaz.
Pundalik was one of the first people to be arrested, and according to the police, he has named the others in the case. According to media, Pundalik is be-lieved to have confessed that he and the woman’s father, Eerappa, called Arbaaz to Khanapur, where the woman’s family lived.
Because Arbaaz refused to break up with the woman, they killed him. His body was chopped up and left on the railway track in order to destroy evidence.
Meanwhile, India’s National Commission for Mi-norities has taken suo motu cognizance of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which eight persons, including four farmers, were killed.
The NCM Chairperson, Sardar Iqbal Singh Lalpura, has written to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary and asked for a report within the next three days.When contacted by Indian media, Lalpura said, “It would not be fair for me to make any comment until I am furnished with information from the right quar-ters.
I did meet with Tejinder Singh Virk who was injured and has been admitted to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon. I have met his family as well. It was a fruitful discussion.” —Agencies
