The Shivamogga police have invoked Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, against 10 accused arrested in connection with the murder of Bhajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishat activist Harsha on February 20. This will facilitate the transfer of the probe to National Investigation Agency (NIA), police sources said.

While senior Minister K.S. Eshwarappa had demanded the case be handed over to NIA, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje had on Saturday said it will be done in a  week’s time.

Generally invoked in cases involving national security, UAPA has been invoked in murder cases of Hindutwa activists earlier too, such as murders of BJP workers K. Raju in Mysuru and Rudresh in Bengaluru in 2016. The BJP Government had recently invoked the stringent provisions of the Act in DJ Halli violence of 2020 and handed over the case to NIA. 

The probe into the murder of Harsha had revealed that the accused in his murder had a personal enmity with him over a trivial dispute when they were in prison together. The accused seem to also have no organisational associations, police sources had earlier claimed. However, police who were probing the communal angle now feel that there is a larger conspiracy behind the murder than personal enmity. “Many things have come out during the probe to lead us to the conclusion that it was not just a case of personal enmity,” said a senior police official. “We cannot disclose the findings of the probe. The investigation officer in his wisdom has decided UAPA needs to be invoked and the court has permitted him,” said Praveen Sood, DG & IGP, Karnataka State Police. 

Police sources are now also probing posts by “Mangalore Muslims” Facebook page, a social media handle that has been in the dock for inciting posts several times earlier too, in connection with Harsha’s murder, sources said. 

The social media handle had posted on December 31, 2015, against the now murdered Harsha, alleging he had been posting derogatory comments on Islam and appealed people to book cases against him and to the people of Shivamogga to “give the treatment that needs to be given” to Harsha. The same social media handle posted another inciting post after Harsha was murdered. Mangaluru Police had booked a suo motu case against those running the “Mangalore Muslims” handle following which the page has now been taken down. 

The case against those running Mangalore Muslims social media handle has now been transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). “The probe into the social media handle needs technical support which is better in CID, so the case has been transferred,” Mr. Sood said. Sources said that those running the social media handle are suspected to be outside the country, another factor why the case has been transferred to CID. 

However, the two cases – murder of Harsha and that against Mangalore Muslims – are not linked yet and is still subject of investigation, sources said.