Parents of girl among 10 arrested for murder of youth in Belagavi

Belagavi: Days after a 24-year-old Muslim man's decapitated body was found on a railway track in Karnataka's Belagavi district, 10 people, including the parents of a Hindu woman he was in a relationship with, were arrested for his murder on Friday.

The investigation revealed that the girl's parents had handed a contract to a Hindu outfit leader to eliminate the 24-year-old Arbaaz Mulla.

The arrested individuals have been identified as the girl's father Erappa Kambara, mother Susheela Kambara, Sriramasena Hindustan Taluk unit President Pundalika a.k.a. Maharaja Mutagekar, Qutubuddin Bepari, Prahlad Sugate, Manjunath Gondali, Ganapathi Sugate, Prashanth Patil, Praveen Poojeri, and Sridhar Doni.

The accused are now charged under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 341 (wrongful restraint), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 384 (extortion), 388 (extortion by threat), 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 27 of Arms Act (punishment for possession of arms).

The police had recovered the body of the youth near railway tracks in the outskirts of Khanapur town on September 28. The accused had hacked him to death and threw the body on the railway track to make it look like a case of suicide.

However, the police managed to trace the deceased's identity, and the youth's mother Nazeema Mulla lodged a complaint against the girl's parents and Pundalika.

The police came to know that Arbaaz was in love with a Hindu girl for four years and wanted to marry her.

The girl's parents, after coming to know about it, warned him not to continue the relationship with their daughter.

When all attempts to stop Arbaaz from meeting their daughter failed, they had approached Pundalika and gave him "supari" or a contract of Rs 60,000 to hack Arbaaz to death.

Pundalika had called Arbaaz and threatened to finish him off if he continues meeting the girl. He had also made him delete all the pictures with a girl on his mobile phone, the police said.

Later, the accused had demanded money from Arbaaz and called him near the railway track with the help of another accused Qutubuddin Bepari.

After taking money, the accused hacked him to death and threw the body on the railway track.

A special team was formed by Belagavi Superintendent of Police (SP) Lakshman Nimbargi to crack the case. The team headed by Additional SP Amarnath Reddy and Bylahongala Deputy SP Shivananda Katagi succeeded to arrest the accused persons.

All the accused were presented at Khanapur court and sent to judicial custody.