Puneeth Kerahalli, the main accused in the Idrees Pasha murder case, has been arrested from Rajasthan, Ramanagara Superintendent of Police Karthik Reddy confirmed to TNM. His arrest comes four days after he went absconding. Puneeth is accused of killing Pasha and assaulting his two associates — Syed Zaheer and Irfan — for transporting cattle. Pasha was chased, assaulted and killed allegedly by a gang of Hindutva extremists led by Puneeth on March 31. Through videos posted on social media, Puneeth has been known for using a stun gun to inflict pain during his ‘cow vigilante’ outings, and Pasha’s body also had burn marks on it.
Puneeth has been photographed with top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Karnataka. He and four others were booked by the police under Sections 302 (Murder), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC, based on a complaint lodged by Pasha's family members. 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.
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.