Welcoming Union Home Ministry’s decision to hand over investigation of the murder of Hindutva activist and murder accused Suhas Shetty to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Dakshina Kannada MP Capt. Brijesh Chowta on Sunday, June 8, said Dakshina Kannada district wants freedom from anti-national elements that are active in the district and become an active part of Prime Minister’s vision of Viksit Bharat.
In a statement here, Capt. Chowta said he wrote a detailed letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on May 2 expressing the need for an NIA probe following Shetty’s murder in full public view in Bajpe on May 1. He had expressed the need of a comprehensive and impartial investigation as there was suspicion of involvement of members of banned Popular Front of India (PFI) in the murder. The nation cannot afford to allow radical, anti-national, and jihadi forces to fester in any part of the country. One month into the letter, the Union Home Ministry decided to hand over probe of Shetty’s murder to NIA.
Shetty’s murder was a larger pattern of growing lawlessness, emboldened Islamic radicalism, and anti-national elements that continue to operate in coastal Karnataka. Following targeted killing of BJP cadre Praveen Nettaru in July 2022 by members of banned PFI organisation, life of Suhas Shetty, another young Hindu, was extinguished in a similar manner.
