Udaipur-Amravati killings: NIA chief meets Amit Shah

National Investigation Agency (NIA) chief Dinkar Gupta called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his office here, on Monday, days after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directed the agency to take over the probe of the brutal killings in Rajasthan’s Udaipur and Maharashtra’s Amravati.
On June 28, a tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, was hacked to death by two men inside his shop in Udaipur in broad daylight while a chemist shop owner, Umesh Kolhe, was killed by several men in Amravati on June 21.
In the Amravati case, a district court sent the key accused and Irfan Sheikh, the mastermind in the murder case to police custody till July 7. Irfan Sheikh was arrested by the Amravati police in Nagpur on Sunday. The six accused have been identified as Mudassir Ahmad (22), Shah Rukh Pathan (25), Abdul Thoufique (24), Shoaib Khan (22), Atib Rashid (22) and Yusufkan Bahadur Khan (44).
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday asserted that the murder of the 54-year-old chemist (Umesh Kolhe) in Amravati was a “very serious incident”. He said the NIA is also probing the international connection in the case.
Investigators believe that the chemist 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 television debate.
In the Udaipur case, one of the assailants, identified as Riyaz Akhtari is seen attacking 47-year-old Kanhaiya Lal with a sharp-edged weapon while his associate, Ghouse Mohammad was recording the crime on his mobile phone.
The victim had reportedly shared a social media post in support of Nupur Sharma – former BJP leader who had made controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad.
The NIA, on Thursday, said it suspects the role of a “terror gang and not a terror outfit”. The anti-terror agency, however, made it clear that there is a role of a bigger gang behind the brutal killing and that it was not just an act done by only two persons, who were arrested by state police after the incident.