Ahmedabad: Rural Police Ahmedabad on Friday announced that they had arrested two suspected shooters and an ulama, who was allegedly involved in a conspiracy, for the murder of a 27-year-old man in Dhakhuka on Tuesday.
According to police officers, the shooters were identified as Sabbir Chopda, 25, and Imtiyaz Pathan, 27, both Dhandhuka residents.
Police officers said the Ulama, Maulana Mohammed Ayyub Javrawala, 51, a resident of Jamalpur at Ahmedabad, allegedly conspiraced the murder and gave a revolver to the shooters, which was with Chophda shooting Kishan Bharwad.
“On January 25, around 5pm, Chopda and Pathhan followed Bharwad on their motorbike and fired two rounds on him.
One bullet hit Bharwad and he died in place,” said a police officer.
After the murder, Ahmedabad Rural SP formed a local crime branch team, a special operating group and local police to arrest the shooters.
The police collected CCTV footage from the crime scene and identified the defendant, who was seen riding their motorcycle in parallel with Bharwad and shooting him.
The police deactivated both on Thursday.
They revealed that the murder was an act of revenge because Bharwad had made unpleasant posts on social media about Islam.
On January 9, a FIR was filed against Bharwad for allegedly criticizing people from certain religions and video sharing and photographs beheading.
Bharwad made an unpleasant statement about certain religious leaders and said at his social media post that people were not permitted to comment on certain religions.
Bharwad was arrested in this case and then released.
The defendant was then allegedly decided to kill Bharwad because his comments were inappropriate against Islam.
In the second week of January, Chopda and Pathhan met Javrawala and planned to kill Bharwad, said a police officer.
“Javrawala gave two pistols and five cartridges during their meeting in Jamalpur and sent them back to Dhandhuka to kill Bharwad.
Chopda and Pathan returned to Dhandhuka, and lurked Bharwad for four days before committing murder,” said officer.
Police officers said Chopda had a year ago contact a scholar in Delhi through Instagram and met him in Mumbai nine months ago.
The agent introduced Chopda to JavraWala and told Chopda about what actions could be taken against people who made comments that did not deserve to oppose Islam.
In October, the scholars from Delhi came to the Shah-e-nature area in the city, where Chopda and Javrawala met him, police officers said.
Two suspected shooters were ordered for criminal murder and conspiracy based on charges under ARM.
They were produced in front of the court and sent to police custody for nine days.
Javrawala was arrested on Friday night.