New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested another accused involved in the gruesome murder of BJP's Praveen Nettaru in Karnataka in July 2022.
The accused Riyaz Yousaf Haaralli alias Riyaz was arrested from Mumbai airport while he was trying to flee abroad, a statement issued by the NIA said.
Riyaz's arrest has taken the total number of accused taken into custody so far to 19 in the case.
His arrest comes less than a month after absconder, Mustafa Paichar, was nabbed along with one of his harbourers, Mansoor Pasha last month.
"The NIA on Tuesday swooped down on an absconder in the Praveen Nettaru murder case and arrested him from Mumbai airport while he was trying to flee abroad," the statement said.
Nettaru, a BJP Yuva Morcha district executive committee member, was brutally hacked to death by two motorcycle-borne assailants in Bellare village of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka by cadres of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) in July 2022.
The attack was aimed at striking terror among a section of people in the society, NIA investigations have shown.
According to the NIA investigations, Riyaz returned to India from abroad on the directions of absconding accused Abdul Rahman.
Along with Mansoor Pasha, Riyaz had provided logistical support and a safe hideout to Mustafa Paichar in Sakleshpur, Hassan District, Karnataka, the statement said.
"Paichar, the secretary of PFI Puttur district and the head of the Puttur district service team, was the chief conspirator in the case," it added.
He had assembled the hit team that targeted the victim and, after the crime, had absconded along with others, the NIA said, adding that 'he was finally traced and arrested by NIA from Sakleshpur on 10th May 2024 along with Mansoor Pasha'.
NIA, which had taken over the investigation on August 4, 2022, has so far filed a charge-sheet against 21 accused persons.
The agency is continuing with its manhunt to track the other absconders, the statement said.