Amravati Beheading Case: Accused Seeks Bail, Claiming He Is Not From Tablighi Jamaat

A petition has been filed in a Special NIA court seeking bail in the Amravati beheading case. The plea also stated that the suspect is not a member of “Tablighi Jamaat” as claimed by the NIA.

A single bench of Justice Rajesh Kataria was hearing a bail petition filed by Yusuf Khan, who NIA claimed to be the alleged mastermind in the murder of Umesh Kolhe.

Umesh Kolhe, an Amravati resident, was brutally murdered by three assailants on June 21, 2022, while returning home from his pharmacy.

The investigating agency had filed a chargesheet claiming that the accused were from the Tablighi Jamaat, a transnational Deobandi Islamic missionary movement that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Shehzad Naqvi stated that he was a devout Sunni Muslim who adhered to the “Barelvi School of Thought,” which is based on “Sufi mystic teachings,” and that he was not a member of the “Tablighi Jamaat,” as the prosecution claimed.

“The prosecution (has not) produced any documents to substantiate the said allegation in the entire chargesheet, nor has any witness alleged the same against the present applicant,” his bail plea stated.

It also claimed that the prosecution had failed to establish Khan’s intent to commit murder (of Kolhe) in order to invoke the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) or Indian Penal Code(IPC) provisions.

Khan has been booked for murder, being part of a criminal conspiracy and for removal of evidence under provisions of the IPC and the stringent UAPA.

According to the NIA, Kolhe was murdered by “radicalised Islamists of Tablighi Jamaat,” and Khan was allegedly a member of a WhatsApp group known as “Black Freedom,” as was Kolhe. Khan was accused of taking a screenshot of Kolhe’s message that included his phone number, thereby revealing his identity.

The NIA has further asserted that Irfan Khan, the suspected mastermind, directed a “terrorist group” to murder Kolhe in retaliation for the Prophet Mohammed’s insult.

In his bail application, Yusuf Khan stated that this (the formation of a terrorist gang) established prima facie that the murder was not motivated by his Whatsapp message. According to the application, Khan was not a member of any such “terrorist gang” formed on June 19, 2022, nor was there any meeting of minds when the said conspiracy to kill the victim was hatched on that date.

The NIA is expected to submit its respond on February 18,2023.