Chandru’s murder: Owner of bike involved in Bengaluru road rage held

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested one more suspect in the murder of Chandru, a 22-year-old man whose killing in western Bengaluru on April 5 had sparked political outrage.

Mohammed Nabi, an air-conditioner serviceman from JJ Nagar, is the fourth person to be arrested over the murder. Shahid Pasha, 21, Shahid alias Gooli, 22, and a 17-year-old were arrested earlier.

Chandru, a resident of Jaibheem Nagar, Mysuru Road, and a friend named Simon Raj had gone to Haleguddadahalli, JJ Nagar, in search of a chicken roll joint. On their way back, they were caught in the road-rage incident, which resulted in Chandru’s murder.

The murder came to prominence after Home Minister Araga Jnanendra claimed that Chandru was killed because “he didn’t speak Urdu”. While Jnanendra later retracted the statement, BJP leaders continue to make that allegation.

In his initial complaint to the police, Raj didn’t say anything about the Urdu angle. But on April 9, in interviews with Kannada news channels, he claimed that Chandru was killed because he wasn’t able to speak Urdu.

Bengaluru police chief Kamal Pant, however, dismissed the Urdu angle, saying the murder was the result of a road-rage incident. The case was later transferred to the CID for further probe.

Sources in the CID said Nabi was a friend of the arrested suspects and that he owned the motorbike that was hit by Chandru’s two-wheeler on that fateful night.

The collision led to a heated brawl and Chandru was fatally attacked with lethal weapons.

The CID learnt that Nabi had lent the bike to his friends. And after the incident, he helped Pasha and Gooli go into hiding and stay in a hotel. But the police nabbed the duo, along with the juvenile, the same day.

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