Six arrested in students' murder case are KFD members: Minister

Six arrested in students' murder case are KFD members: Minister

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2127587.ece

Home Minister R. Ashok on Wednesday said the accused in the Hunsur students' murder case were members of the controversial Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), which is under the scanner of the State and Central security agencies.

He made the revelation at a press conference convened to announce the arrest of six persons for allegedly kidnapping and killing two BBM students of Hunsur.

“The accused had kidnapped the students to mobilise funds for the KFD,” he said.

Mr. Ashok said that in view of the involvement of KFD members in the double murder case as well as in some cases of communal violence in the past, the Government was planning to ban the organisation.

Under the scanner

The police were monitoring the activities of the KFD and a decision on the proposal to ban the organisation would be taken after discussions with Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and senior police officials, he said.

M. Sudheendra (19) and H.S. Vignesh (20), both students of Mahajana college in Mysore went missing on June 8 and were found murdered near Agalagurki on the Chickballapur bypass on June 12.

“The police have seized two cars, a toy pistol, six mobile phones, two button knives and other materials from the accused,” Mr. Ashok said.

The arrested have been identified as Adil Pasha (23) of Shabbir Nagar in Hunsur, Ameen (23), Shabbir ur Rehman (25) and Kouser alias Mohammed (26), all from Rajiv Nagar 2nd Stage in Mysore, Athaullah Khan alias Attu (23) of Nizam Mohalla in Hunsur and Safeer Ahmed (34) of Rajiv Nagar 1st Stage in Mysore.

In Bangalore

They were arrested near the Jnana Bharathi campus of Bangalore University on Tuesday.

Adil is a butcher and mobile phone repairer, while Safeer is an electrician, and the other four accused are wood polishers and painters. The Minister claimed that during interrogation the accused told the police that initially they had planned to kidnap only Sudheendra to extract money from his parents. After two failed attempts, they abducted Sudheendra on June 8 from a park near his college. They also kidnapped Vignesh, who was with Sudheendra, fearing that he would inform the police, the Home Minister said.

Criminal records: Some of the accused were wanted in three or four criminal cases and had spent up to three months in Gulbarga prison. They also attended several programmes and protests organised by KFD at Wilson Garden here. They were also allegedly involved in communal clashes in Mysore, Mr. Ashok said.

40 SIM cards

The accused allegedly gave sleeping pills to the boys early on June 12. Later, they strangled the victims before stabbing them, Mr. Ashok said.To evade arrest, the prime accused, Adil, used at least 40 SIM cards between June 8 and till his arrest on Tuesday.