A two-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court on Monday refused to dismiss the National Investigation Agency probe into the 2016 murder of RSS Secretary Rudresh in Bengaluru.
The division bench of Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar in April, 2017 had allowed the NIA probe to continue after a single-bench of the High Court stayed the NIA probe.
Monday’s order comes after the Karnataka HC rejected the bail plea of the five accused on March 8.
R Rudresh, a civil-works contractor, was hacked to death on October 16, 2016 by two persons on a bike in Bengaluru’s Commercial Street.
The state BJP leadership has been insisting on a NIA probe on the matter since the day of his murder. But the NIA probe had begun only in December 2016 following a Union Home Ministry order. And since then the accused are being tried in a special NIA court.
Five people from the Popular Front of India— Irfan Pasha, Waseem Ahmed, Mohammad Sadiq, Mohammed Mujeeb Ulla and Asim Sheriff (District President) were taken into custody in connection with the case.
The first four were arrested by the Bengaluru City Police which was initially investigating the case.
Other than murder and other charges, the five were also charged under sections of UAPA Act.
In its chargesheet, the NIA had said, “Though none of the accused had any personal enmity with Rudresh, he was killed solely because of his role in the leadership/ membership to a particular organisation. The murder was committed with an intention to strike terror among a section of the people.”
The central agency claimed that the five men were indoctrinated and they were tasked with preventing people from joining the RSS.
State BJP leaders went on to accuse Karnataka minister Roshan Baig of allegedly being involved in the matter.
"If Baig is not behind the murder of Rudresh, he should impress upon Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to call for a cabinet meeting and hand over the investigation to a central investigating agency," BJP MP Shoba Karandlaje was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
