The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a chargesheet against the five accused in the murder of RSS worker Rudresh, who was hacked to death in October 2016.
Consequent to the orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Hyderabad branch of NIA had re-registered the crime (no. 124/2016) of Commercial Street police station in Bengaluru as RC-04/2016/NIA/HYD on December 8, 2016, against unknown accused persons for killing Rudresh, a RSS member (who was in uniform) by hacking on the right side of his neck with a sharp machete.
The NIA has now filed the chargesheet before the Special Court for NIA cases, Bengaluru, under sections 302 r/w 34, 120-B IPC and sections 16(1)(a), 18, 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and named the five accused (all residents of the city)—Irfan Pasha (32) of Govindpura, Waseem Ahmed (32) of Austin town, Mohammed Sadiq (35) of Marappa Garden, Md. Mujheebulla (46) of RT Nagar and Asim Sheriff (40) of Benson Town.
While the four accused were arrested on October 27, 2016, the fifth accused was held on November 2 the same year, by the Karnataka state police. Investigations have established that all five are members of Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political affiliate Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). While none of the accused had personal enmity with the deceased, he was killed solely because of his leadership/membership in a particular organisation. The killing was a clear act of terror with the intention to strike terror among a section of the people. To achieve this, Rudresh was murdered in broad daylight using a lethal weapon and while he was in RSS uniform.
The probe has further disclosed that the accused, along with others had conspiracy meetings near Aksa Masjid, and Chota Charminar in the city in September 2016, prior to the act of terror. During the meetings it was decided to murder at least two RSS workers soon after their flag march (Path Sanchalan), so as to strike terror and prevent others from joining the RSS. It was also learnt that the accused had been indoctrinated to make them believe that they were doing the act as part of fulfilling the objective of establishing Islam and jihad by killing a “Kafir” (non-believer who worship idols).
