Bengaluru, Aug 2 – The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday carried out searches at 18 locations across Karnataka in connection with the murder of Hindu activist and Bajrang Dal member Suhas Shetty.
According to officials, the raids were conducted in Mangaluru, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts at the residences of 12 arrested persons and several other suspects. The operation led to the seizure of 11 mobile phones, 13 SIM cards, eight memory cards and incriminating documents.
Suhas Shetty was brutally murdered on May 1 in the Bajpe area of Mangaluru. The NIA said that Abdul Safwan and others attacked him in public with lethal weapons to create terror. The attackers came in two vehicles and struck while Shetty was travelling in his car with associates.
The killing, captured on video, triggered communal tension in the coastal region, leading to revenge attacks, including the daylight murder of mosque secretary Imtiyaz weeks later.
Initially investigated by Karnataka Police, the case was handed over to the NIA in June following demands from BJP leaders and Union Ministers. The Shetty family also pressed for a central probe, expressing faith that only the NIA could ensure justice.
Suhas Shetty, out on bail at the time of his death, was the prime accused in the July 2022 murder of Mohammad Fazil, which was allegedly in retaliation for the killing of BJP worker Praveen Kumar Nettaru. Nettaru’s death, during the height of the hijab controversy, had already sparked communal unrest in the region.
NIA officials confirmed that investigations into the larger conspiracy behind Shetty’s murder are ongoing. The case remains one of the most sensitive communal crime investigations in Karnataka’s recent history.
