(Trigger Warning: Descriptions of violence)
Karnataka Police on Wednesday, 5 April, arrested cow vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli and four others — accused in the murder of Idrees Pasha, a cattle trader from Mandya district.
This comes after a video posted on a Facebook page (Karnataka Suddi) on 3 April, showed Kerehalli sitting in a car and defending himself.
What has the police said: Confirming the arrest, Superintendent of Police (SP) Ramanagara Karthik Reddy told The Quint, “We arrested main accused Puneeth Kerehalli and four others from Rajasthan’s Banswara district. Our teams nabbed him after doing a technical analysis to track his location."
SP Reddy added, "Police teams from both Gujarat and Rajasthan helped us. All five accused were presented in front of the local magistrate and we have received orders for their transit remand.”
What had Kerehalli said in the video: The cow vigilante had claimed that it was not him who killed Idrees Pasha but he was being framed by Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) leaders to sway Muslim voters. In the video, he had also claimed that his phone was switched off as he was visiting multiple temples.
What had happened: As per the First Information Report (FIR) accessed by The Quint, Pasha's vehicle carrying cattle was intercepted by cow vigilantes in Sathanur village, in the wee hours of Friday night, 31 March.
The cow vigilantes accused Pasha of illegally transporting cattle for slaughter. Though Pasha said that the cattle were bought from a local market and that he had documents for the same, he was abused by the vigilantes and told to go to Pakistan. He was later chased and assaulted resulting in severe injuries.
What Pasha's family said: Speaking to The Quint, Shamsuddin, a 55-year-old tractor mechanic and Pasha’s uncle, said, “I, along with the rest of the family, saw his body. Electric shocks were given on his arms, on his neck. They hit his jaw with a bat, his head was also damaged. We got his body after post mortem for burial. When we were trying to clean the body with water, his skin was coming off.”
Charges: Kerehalli, along with four others, had been booked under sections 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 302 (Punishment for murder), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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