NIA likely to take over probe into RSS worker’s murder

The BJP in Karnataka has been demanding an NIA investigation into the stabbing of the RSS worker outside his laundry store on the night of June 4. BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje has written multiple letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking NIA investigation into the murder.

The MP, in a letter to Singh on July 8, alleged that the RSS worker was killed by activists of pro-Muslim group Popular Front of India. Madivala was stabbed by unidentified suspects who came on a motorcycle. The death resulted in shutdown of Bantwal region on July 8, with incidents of stone pelting and protests by Hindu groups.

In the communally-charged atmosphere of the Dakshina Kannada region, the murder of Madivala is widely seen as a possible act of retaliation for the murder of an activist of the Social Democratic Party of India — a political offshoot of PFI. SDPI worker Ashraf Kalayi, 33, was hacked to death on June 21 in Bantwal taluk by alleged members of a Bajrang Dal outfit.

In her letter to Singh, Karandlaje drew parallels between the Madivala case and the October 2016 murder of RSS worker R Rudresh in Bengaluru city following the conclusion of a route march by RSS cadre in Shivajinagar area.

The probe into the Rudresh murder case by the police led to the arrest of five activists from PFI, including the Bengaluru district president of the outfit Asim Shariff. The police had invoked the UAPA against the arrested men, paving the way for the NIA to take over investigations.

In the Madivala case, the police are yet to any arrests and UAPA has not been invoked. The NIA could take over the case on suo motu basis if directed by the MHA. “We are still investigating the case and UAPA has not been invoked as of now,’’ Dakshina Kannada SP Sudhir Kumar Reddy said.

Karandlaje wrote, “Jihadi elements belonging to PFI have converted Dakshina Kannada district into a laboratory to experiment with their fundamentalist ideology.” The PFI is trying to break “the spine of nationalist forces by indulging in the killing of young activists belonging to BJP, RSS, Hindu organisations”, she added.