Umesh Kolhe murder: Rana couple deny links with mastermind

So far, the Amravati police arrested seven persons in the case, and identified the mastermind as Shaikh Irfan Shaikh Rahim

The politician couple of Ravi Rana and wife Navneet Rana vehemently denied that the mastermind in the Umesh Kolhe murder case was their party worker.

“The charges are absolutely baseless,” the couple told a television news channel.

Ravi is a three-time Independent MLA from Badnera, and his wife Navneet Kaur is a first-time Independent MP from Amravati. The couple run the Yuva Swabhiman Party.

So far, the Amravati police arrested seven persons, and identified the mastermind as Shaikh Irfan Shaikh Rahim (35), a resident of Kamela Ground in Pathan Chowk.

According to the police, Khan had planned the murder by organising funds, weapons, and motorbikes for the killers.

The investigation revealed that the 35-year-old Shaikh Rahim had sought support for the MP-MLA couple on separate occasions.

When Navneet Rana was contesting the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Khan sought votes for her through his Facebook posts. He also posted a photo with Ravi Rana.

“Whosoever may be, they should be brought to book,” said Ravi Rana, adding that he never met the mastermind. “We do not know him…he was never our worker,” Navneet Rana said.

The couple, however, alleged that Congress leader and former minister Yashomati Thakur tried to suppress the case when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power. The Rana-couple said that Thakur had not visited the family or had given any statement on this issue.

The National Investigation Agency has now taken over the investigations from City Kotwali police station of Amravati.

The couple also lashed out at Amravati Police Commissioner Dr Arti Singh.

The six other accused arrested by the Amravati police were: Mudaseer Ahmed alias Sonu Raja alias Shaikh Ibrahim, Shahrukh Khan alias Badshah Hidayat Khan, Abdul Taufiq alias Nana Shaikh Taslim, Saheb Khan, Atib Rashid and Yusuf Khan Bahadur Khan.

Kolhe was murdered in June, apparently for his social media posts in which he supported Nupur Sharma—the now-suspended BJP spokesperson who had made objectionable comments on Prophet Mohammad. Kolhe, who ran a medical equipment shop in Amravati, was attacked when he was returning home on his scooter.

The Ranas had called the murder “an attack on Hindutva”.

After Kolhe's murder, the local BJP unit and the Ranas accused the police and the then Uddhav Thackeray government of hiding reality. The BJP-led central government stepped in and ordered a probe by the National Investigation Agency.