Praveen Nettaru murder: NIA files supplementary charge sheet against 2 PFI cadres

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary charge sheet against two cadres of the proscribed Popular Front of India in connection with the killing of BJP youth wing leader Praveen Nettaru in Karnataka last year, an official said on Thursday.

The charge sheet was filed against PFI’s master arms trainer Thufail M H and Mohammad Jabir under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) act in a special court, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

The official said Thufail, who had been absconding, was tracked down and arrested by an NIA team in Bengaluru recently.

A total of 21 accused have been charge-sheeted so far in the case, which was initially registered at Bellare police station of Dakshina Kannada on July 27 last year and re-registered by the NIA on August 4, the spokesperson said.

The official said Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader Nettaru was murdered with sharp-edged weapons on July 26 last year in Bellare village of Sullia Taluk, as part of the PFI’s agenda to strike terror among members of a community and create communal hatred and unrest in the society with the aim of furthering its goal of establishing Islamic rule in India by 2047.

The initial charge sheet in the case was filed by the NIA on January 20, stating that the PFI had formed secret ”hit squads” — ”service teams” or ”killer squads” — to carry out the killing of its ”perceived enemies” and targets.

”NIA investigations have also revealed that Thufail M H, a resident of Kodagu district, was incharge of the PFI ‘service teams’ in his district and also a ‘PFI master trainer’ who would regularly impart advanced training, including arms training, to the banned outfit’s cadres at the freedom community hall in neighbouring Dakshina Kannada district,” the spokesperson said.

Citing the agency’s investigation, the official said he had allegedly harboured the three assailants of Nettaru in Kodagu and Mysuru districts of Karnataka and in Erode district of Tamil Nadu.

The spokesperson said Jabir was the PFI Puttur district president and had actively participated in a meeting where the conspiracy to kill Nettaru was hatched.

”He had also made provocative speeches where he had claimed that Masood’s murder will be avenged,” the official said.

Masood, a teen, was killed in the same area earlier.