Karnataka police charge sheet says youth murdered as he could not speak Urdu

IANS

Bengaluru, 16 Jul 2022: In a major development, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wing of Karnataka police probing the sensational murder case of a Hindu youth has submitted a charge sheet, saying the youth was killed because he could not speak Urdu language, police sources said on Saturday.

 

22-year-old Chandru was murdered by a group of people in J.J. Nagar police station limits of Bengaluru on April 5. Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, BJP National Secretary C.T. Ravi and other BJP leaders maintained that Chandru’s murder was communal and he was killed because he could not speak in Urdu language.

 

CID sleuths who investigated the case stated that the murder of Chandru took place because of language issue. The police had arrested four persons including a minor, all belonging to the minority community.

 

Sources explain that they have submitted a 171-page charge sheet to the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court and named 49 persons as witnesses. The charge sheet says, deceased’s friend Simon Raj, after celebrating birthday, was going on bike with Chandru on April 5.

 

Shahid Pasha, who was walking started abusing Simon Raj all of a sudden. When questioned, the accused maintained he did not say anything. Afterwards, as the accused again abused them near a bakery, Simon Raj and Chandru had pushed him.

 

Shahid Pasha had called his friends and asked Chandru and his friend to speak in Urdu as they don’t understand Kannada language. Later, Chandru was stabbed in the thigh while his friend Simon Raj managed to escape. Police said, locals did not bother to shift him to hospital and did not make a call to police. Simon Raj who came back much later had shifted Chandru to hospital.

 

Chandru succumbed to profuse bleeding in the hospital. The police arrested the accused later.

 

Earlier, the then Police Commissioner of Bengaluru city, Kamal Pant had contradicted ruling BJP statement and maintained that Chandru’s murder was just a case of road rage and there was nothing communal about it.

 

Home Minister Araga Jnanendra who had given a communal twist to the youth murder case in Bengaluru by stating that he was murdered for refusing to speak in Urdu, later backtracked from his statements and apologised for the same.

 

The casual attitude of the minister at that time when the entire state was passing through the phase of unrest was slammed.

 

Opposition leader Siddaramaiah had demanded the home minister’s resignation and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had slammed him, saying that he had stooped down to the level of carrying out politics in cases of murders also. The public were also enraged with the handling of the case.

 

The charge sheet by the CID is likely to be objected by the opposition Congress as the case had taken communal turn.