Praveen Nettaru murder: One suspect arrested from Bengaluru hideout

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Sunday that it had arrested a former secretary of the PFI’s Kodagu district unit over the murder of BJP worker Praveen Nettaru.

In a statement, NIA said that it tracked down and overpowered Thufail M H from his “hideout” in northeastern Bengaluru’s Amruthahalli area late on Saturday night. Thufail headed the banned organisation’s service team (hit team) in Kodagu, the NIA added.

Sources said Thufail had been living alone in a first-floor house that he rented in a three-storey building in Maruthi Layout. The landlord, Nanjundappa, said Thufail was a recluse and didn’t talk to anyone. He stepped out only to buy daily essentials and always wore a mask.

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The sources added that NIA sleuths entered the building posing as plumbers and nabbed Thufail who was busy making dinner for himself at the time.

Hearing the knocks on the door, Thufail asked who it was. After learning that it was a plumber, he said there was no problem with the water supply or pipelines. The sleuths, however, said the landlord had sent them. Thufail let them in. When the truth dawned on him, he tried to escape but was caught, the sources said.

According to the NIA, Thufail had gone into hiding after Nettaru’s murder at Bellare village in Dakshina Kannada’s Sullia taluk in July 2022. Nettaru was a member of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha. The murder led to a backlash from BJP workers and was followed by several killings in the coastal district. The NIA believes PFI cadres were behind Nettaru’s murder.

In January 2023, the NIA charged 20 people for the murder, including Thufail and five other absconding accused.

It also announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh for information leading to the arrest of the absconding accused.

The NIA said that Thufail played a “significant role” in the PFI’s “larger conspiracy” to murder the leaders of a particular community. He provided shelter and safe harbour at Ashiyana Residency in Koppa village, Mysuru district, to three men who allegedly recceed and hacked Nettaru to death.

In 2016, Thufail was named in an FIR by the Kushalnagar rural police for the murder of one Prashanth Poojari.

In 2012, he was booked by the Madikeri rural police for an attempt to murder VHP leader Ganesh, NIA said. Other absconding accused include Kodaje Mohammed Sharief, a PFI member from Bantwal taluk, K A Masood from Nekkilady and S Mohammed Mustafa Paicharu from Bellare.