BENGALURU:
Sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted extensive searches at the houses of three absconding suspects in the murder case of BJP youth wing leader Praveen Nettaru in Dakshina Kannada district last year, the NIA said here Wednesday.
The raids were conducted in two locations in Kodagu and one in Dakshina Kannada on Tuesday, an NIA release said.
The officials seized several electronic gadgets and documents during the searches at the houses of Abdul Nasir and Abdul Rahman in Kodagu district and Naushad in Dakshina Kannada.
Nettaru was murdered on July 26 last year in Bellare village in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district. The activists of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) are accused of hacking him to death.
The three persons whose homes were searched are suspected of harbouring the main assailants in the Praveen Nettaru murder, at various hideouts across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Besides the trio, five other accused are still absconding in the case, which NIA had taken over in August 2022, the release said.
A total of 21 persons, including the fugitives, have so far been named in the charge sheet by NIA under various sections of UAPA, IPC and the Arms Act. The PFI has been indulging in such targeted ‘hate killings’ with the aim of driving a communal wedge and spreading communal hatred; efforts to track down the absconding accused are continuing, the release said.
Meanwhile, the NIA officials and Sullia police personnel have warned that the houses of the absconding persons in the case will be attached if they do not surrender before June 30.
Police personnel announced on loudspeakers in vehicles at Sullia town on Wednesday that the houses of the accused in the Praveen Nettaru murder case would be seized if they do not surrender before June 30. They have also promised cash gifts to those who provide clues about the whereabouts of the accused.
Sources said the NIA officials and police personnel had visited accused Ummar Farooq’s house at Kallumuttu in Sullia and another accused Mustafa’s house on Tuesday to paste the court notices outside both the residences.PTI
