CID to probe death of youth stabbed during road rage incident, says Karnataka CM

On April 5, 19-year-old Chandru V died after being reportedly stabbed in his thigh during an altercation after a road accident in the Goripalya area of the JJ Nagar police limits in west Bengaluru.

Based on a preliminary probe, CCTV footage and statements of eyewitnesses, three people have been arrested. While one is a juvenile, the other two have been identified as Shahid Pasha (21) and Shahid Goli (22).

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Soon after the incident, Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant said, “Simon Raj and Chandru [r/o Cottonpete, Christian by community] had gone to an eatery on Mysore Road. While returning back on their bike, they collided with another bike, being ridden by one Shahid. It led to a quarrel, which was joined by others.”

He added, “During the fight, Shahid stabbed Chandru in his right thigh and the assailants fled the spot. Chandru was shifted to Victoria hospital, where he succumbed to the injury.  All the three accused persons are arrested,” the police commissioner stated.”

The official police version was however contradicted by state home minister Araga Jnanendra the following day. “I have gathered information regarding Chandru’s murder. He was asked to speak in Urdu which he did not know. When he said he did not know any language other than Kannada, they killed him by stabbing him repeatedly,” the home minister claimed. He later withdrew the statement saying it was based on “information provided by unofficial sources”.

This came after Karnataka Police’s fact-check site put out a message on April 6 stating, “A video clip is being circulated on social media indicating that a person has been killed in a Muslim area for not speaking in Urdu in J.J Nagar Bengaluru city.  This post which later got deleted has been shared widely by different handles. However, it is totally a false allegation and the said murder has not taken place due to the person not knowing the Urdu language as alleged in the post. The murder that took place on the night of 05/04/2022 is purely due to ‘road rage’.”

“After verifying the veracity of the fact and realizing the news being circulated is fake news, it is requested that such fake news should not be shared on social media without proper verification. And also, it is warned that the appropriate legal action will be taken against those who deliberately spread such fake news to disturb social harmony,” the police said.

However, BJP MLC N Ravikumar on Saturday accused the Bengaluru police commissioner of “lying” about the motive behind the murder. “Simon was at the spot when the incident took place. He saw the stabbing happen when Chandru said he did not know Urdu. He has given a statement,” Ravikumar claimed. “The police commissioner has lied. The home minister was right earlier,” he added.

The FIR lodged by Simon Raj at the JJ Nagar police station at 6.15 am on April 5 does not at any point refer to the cause of the murder being linked to the victim’s inability to speak in Urdu.

According to Raj’s statement in the FIR, he celebrated his birthday at midnight on April 4 and Chandru, who was his friend from the neighbourhood, asked to be treated to a chicken roll. Since most shops were closed in their own locality, they went to the neighbouring JJ Nagar area on Raj’s scooter.

“We were looking to see if any hotels were open. At that time a bike that was traveling in the opposite direction came at a high speed and struck our scooter. We fought with them over the accident. They abused and threatened us. They said they were locals and gathered others. They pushed us around and suddenly some weapons were removed,” Raj told the police.

He also said that Shahid, who was one of the youths involved in the accident, stabbed Chandru in his thigh during the altercation while Raj himself escaped with assault injuries.

“The stabbing in the thigh ruptured an artery and there was heavy loss of blood which resulted in the death of the youth at the Victoria Hospital by the time he was rushed there by others including the victim’s associate,” police sources said.

At around 4 am on the morning of April 5, Chandru was declared dead.

After the state home minister claimed that Chandru was killed because of his inability to speak Urdu, the opposition Congress demanded his resignation.

“What the police commissioner of Bengaluru and the home minister of Karnataka have not been able to see, the BJP’s state general secretary Ravikumar and the BJP’s national general secretary C T Ravi seem to have spotted in the murder of Chandru,” the former Congress MP V S Ugrappa stated on Saturday. “I want to ask (chief minister) Bommai whether he has authorized the home minister and the police commissioner to provide information to the public on matters concerning the police department or whether this duty has been outsourced to party officials or whether these party functionaries have been made de facto home ministers,” he added.

“They (ruling BJP) are trying to play politics even in a murder case,” former CM and Janata Dal (Secular) party leader H D Kumaraswamy said.

Tension over incidents of crimes ahead of polls

In the run-up to the 2018 assembly polls in Karnataka, the BJP had raked up the issue of alleged murders of many Hindu youths under the Congress regime.

In December 2017, Paresh Mesta, 18, died mysteriously in the aftermath of a clash between two communities in the Honnavar town of the Uttara Kannada district over a disputed site. Claims emerged on social media that the youth was a Sangh Parivar worker who was tortured and killed by Muslims despite forensic evidence negating this theory and suggesting drowning as a possible cause of death.

The district simmered with tension for days with right-wing mobs attacking minority establishments. The then BJP president Amit Shah visited the home of Mesta and later ordered a CBI probe in the case. The investigation has not reached closure as yet.

On December 14, 2017, a 15-year-old schoolgirl suffered a self-inflicted cut on her hand in Honnavar. But word spread in the district and on social media that she had been attacked by a Muslim man. Before an investigation could begin, BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje tweeted, “Jihadis tried to repe and murder a girl studying in 9th std near honnavar”.

Subsequent police investigations found that the schoolgirl had inflicted the cut on her hand with a thorn to avoid harassment by a relative who had discovered her relationship with a boy. The girl later told a judge that no one had attacked her.

On January 31, 2018, a 28-year-old auto driver Santosh Kalidas was stabbed in his thigh by a Muslim neighbour in the communally sensitive JC Nagar area of Bengaluru. A long-standing rivalry over various issues in the neighbourhood, including drug usage by the assailant, was cited by the police as the motive for the stabbing.  However, the BJP said that the victim was a party worker and claimed the incident had “communal undertones”.