No link yet between Udaipur and Amravati killings: Police

NAGPUR: Earlier on Monday, police got a local court’s permission to probe a noncognizable offence registered against a caller who allegedly threatened a person for supporting BJP exspokesperson Nupur Sharma on social media. The complainant, one among three people to receive such threats from unknown callers, thereafter posted an apology video. Two of the three have refused to file complaints, police commissioner Arti Singh said. Police are trying to ascertain whether the alleged mastermind in chemist Umesh Kolhe’s murder, Irfan Khan, was behind the threat calls.
On allegations that police didn't probe the case properly until it blew up, Singh said, "Initially we worked on different theories, and there was no evidence to link the murder with the Nupur Sharma controversy. Kolhe's family members did not speak of the threats."
She denied that police came out with robbery as a motive for the crime. Singh claimed police were interrogating accused Dr Yusuf Khan, whom Kolhe closely knew for years, from Day 1.
"Since the matter is sensitive, we did not want to make any comment in a hurry", she said. "If we wanted to suppress the case, we wouldn't have arrested two of the accused immediately, two more the next day, and one each on Friday and Saturday last. We have identified the eighth now."
Singh also said police had found no connection so far between Kolhe's murder and the Udaipur beheading.
Besides UAPA, police have added charges of hurting religious sentiments and fomenting disharmony against the seven accused.