Karnataka police on Wednesday arrested Hindutva extremist Puneeth Kerehalli, who is accused in the coldblooded murder of a cattle trader in Ramanagara district of Karnataka.
Puneeth along with four others were caught in Rajasthan and they were arrested by the police. According to police, Kerehalli runs ‘Rashtra Rakshana Pade’ (Nation Protection Force), an extremist Hindutva organization.
He had also organized campaigns against halal meat and sought a ban on Muslim traders at Hindu temple fairs in the past.
Puneeth and associates are accused of killing 39-year-old Indrees Paasha and assaulting his two associates — Syed Zaheer and Irfan — for transporting cattle.
Pasha was chased, assaulted and killed by a gang of Hindutva extremists led by Puneeth on March 31.
Police said the FIR was filed under sections 302 (murder), 323 (assault) 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of Indian Penal Code.
The FIR stated that although Pasha had documents to prove that the cattle he was ferrying was from the local market, Puneeth and his gang allegedly continued to threaten him. They even demanded a fee of Rs 2 lakh to release him and threatened to kill him if the amount wasn’t paid.
Puneeth has been photographed with top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Karnataka.
This is not the first instance of cow vigilantism that Puneeth was allegedly involved in. He has posted videos of himself ‘confronting’ cattle traders on his social media pages, and in one of the videos posted just a few days before Pasha’s murder, Puneeth is seen using a stun gun on a cattle trader.
The video from March 20 shows Puneeth stopping a truck carrying cattle in the outskirts of Bengaluru. Puneeth is seen continuously assaulting a man named Waseem inside the truck, while he pleads innocence.
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