Mumbai: The charge sheet submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed that the motorcycle used in the alleged murder of Amravati chemist Umesh Kolhe was stolen in December 2020.
The agency has recorded the statement of the vehicle owner, who claimed that it was stolen from outside a building at Tipu Sultan Market in Amravati. He had registered a theft case with the Gagade Nagar police station in this regard.
According to the owner, he had purchased the two-wheeler in 2018 for Rs35,000. As per his statement, on Dec 4, 2020, around 6pm, he had parked it in front of a building in Transport Nagar. After finishing work, when he going back at around 8.30pm, he couldn’t find the vehicle. After searching for it in the vicinity, he lodged a case of theft. Later, he came to know that it was used by the accused in the murder case.
Adil Rashid, father of one of the arrested accused Atib Rashid, told the NIA that on June 23 his son told him that the police were searching for him in Umesh Kolhe’s murder case. He told his father that he was just driving the bike of another accused Mohammad Shoaib alias Bhurya on the night of the incident. “I didn’t do anything. Bhurya and Shahim Ahmad killed him,” he told his father as per the NIA charge sheet.
On June 21, between 10pm and 10.30pm, Umesh Kolhe was allegedly attacked with a knife by three unknown bike-borne assailants. He later died during treatment at a hospital. A probe revealed that the crime had been committed in retaliation to his post on social media in support of BJP worker Nupur Sharma.
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