Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe, a 54-year-old chemist, was killed in Amravati district on June 21. (File)THE NATIONAL Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two more people in connection with the murder of Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, Maharashtra, in June. The accused, who were arrested on Tuesday, have been identified as Abdul Arbaz and Maulavi Mushfique Ahmed. Earlier, the NIA had arrested seven people in the case.
“The arrested accused viz. Abdul Arbaz and Maulavi Mushfique Ahmed are criminal associates of earlier arrested accused persons, namely Irfan Shaikh, Shoaib Khan, Mudassir Ahmed, Aatif Rashid, Yusuf Khan, Abdul Toufiq and Shahrukh Pathan and one wanted accused namely Shamim Ahmed Firoj Ahmed,” the NIA said in a statement.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had last month handed over the chemist’s murder case to the NIA after it was found it had similarities with the June 28 murder of a tailor in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Exactly a week before tailor Kanhaiyalal Teli was hacked to death in Udaipur, Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe, a 54-year-old chemist, was killed in Amravati district on June 21.
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Investigators now believe Kolhe was killed allegedly in retaliation for a social media post supporting BJP’s Nupur Sharma who had made controversial comments on the Prophet in a TV debate.
Initial investigation by the City Kotwali Police Station in Amravati following a complaint by Umesh Kohle’s son Sanket Kohle led them to arrest two persons Muddasir Ahmad, 22, and Shahrukh Pathan, 25, on June 23. Their interrogation revealed the involvement of four more persons, of which three — Abdul Toufiq, 24, Shoaib Khan, 22, and Atib Rashid, 22 — were arrested on June 25.
The murder took place between 10 pm and 10.30 pm on June 21 when Umesh Kolhe was on his way home after closing his shop. Sanket, 27, and his wife Vaishnavi were accompanying him on another scooter.
In his complaint, Sanket told the police, “We were moving from Prabhat Chowk and our scooters had reached the Mahila College New High School’s gate. Two men on a motorcycle suddenly came in front of my father’s scooter. They stopped my father’s bike and one of them stabbed him on the left side of his neck with a knife. My father fell and was bleeding. I stopped my scooter and started shouting for help. Another man came and the three fled the spot on the motorcycle.”
With help from people around, Kolhe was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died during treatment.
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First published on: 03-08-2022 at 10:49:25 pm