NIA nabs key conspirator in Bengaluru RSS worker’s murder

The duo had motivated the other four accused to kill Rudresh to strike terror among the members of RSS and the society. The killers were persuaded to believe that the fight against the RSS was a ‘holy war’, said the NIA in its press release.

A police officer said that Mohammed Ghouse Nayazi, who was popularly known as Ghouse Bhai within their circles, had an Indian passport which expired on September 11, 2021. It has been ascertained in the inquiry from Dubai that the Ghouse never applied for a new passport or even for renewal. Ghouse was overstaying on expired Indian travel documentation and was deported to Ahmedabad by Dubai authorities to face legal action.

Ghouse was a resident of RT Nagar in Bengaluru. The Gujarat Anti-Terror Squad had traced him to the United Arab Emirates. The Dubai authorities and the tele-identifiers discovered Ghouse’s whereabouts by the SIM cards he had obtained using Indian Passport.

With Ghouse’s arrest, all the accused in the case have been arrested. The trial against the remaining accused persons is continuing in NIA Special Court, Bengaluru.

While Ghouse’s name never appeared in the NIA’s chargesheet, a police source said that his involvement was evident in the case. The police have arrested Irfan Pasha, Waseem Ahmed, Mohammed Sadiq and Mohammed Mujeeb Ulla and chargesheeted them. Their bail application at various courts, including the Supreme Court, was rejected.

A police officer said Ghouse alias Ghouse Bhai is also known to be a financier to handle the gangs in India. “We also want to look into the cases reported in the past to see if Ghouse had a role in them. These will include a case where Bengaluru city police had foiled a terror plot and recovered grenades from terror suspects in Bengaluru in July 2023. The probe also had revealed that the grenades were not manufactured in India,” the officer said.

The NIA had also filed a chargesheet in January this year.