Ravi Rana raises Umesh Kolhe murder issue in Maharashtra assembly

MLA Ravi Rana of Maharashtra raised the Umesh Kolhe murder issue in the Legislative Assembly on Friday and requested a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the case.

“Under Uddhav Thackeray’s regime, Umesh Kolhe was murdered at Amaravati, and due to one Congress leader’s pressure, Uddhav Thackeray instructed the police to treat this case as a robbery, but now I demand that the Chief Minister (CM) and Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) investigate this case,” Rana said in the House.

“I also demand that the SIT investigate CM Uddhav Thackeray’s role in the case,” Rana said.Umesh Kolhe, an Amravati-based pharmacist, was hacked to death on Facebook on June 21 night after posting in support of former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma.

The case was initially registered by Maharashtra Police on June 22, and the NIA re-registered it on July 2 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, as well as sections 16, 18, and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.So far, the central agency has arrested ten people for allegedly murdering Kolhe on his way home after closing his chemist shop.

Investigators believe Kolhe was murdered in retaliation for a social media post supporting BJP candidate Nupur Sharma, who made controversial comments about the Prophet during a television debate. The murder occurred exactly one week after tailor Kanhaiyalal Teli was hacked to death in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district, shocking the entire country.

Earlier on Thursday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the death of Disha Salian, the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s manager.MLAs from the Bhartiya Janata Party demanded an investigation into the case in the Maharashtra Assembly.

In the Assembly, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) MLA Bharat Gogavale raised the issue of Salian’s death and demanded an investigation into the alleged role of Aaditya Thackeray, who was then a state minister.

Rane stated, “The Mumbai police are investigating the case. However, evidence is suspected of being tampered with during the previous government’s tenure. As a result, we request that this case be reopened.” “Let the truth about the case come out, it’s still with Mumbai Police and hasn’t yet been investigated by the CBI,” Rane added. I’ll ask the chief minister to refer the case to the CBI. The final postmortem report is still pending, and pages from the entire book have yet to be discovered, so a narcotics test on Aaditya Thackeray is required. It’s Aaditya and Aaftab…” Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale of the Eknath Shinde faction raised the issue in Lok Sabha, saying that in Sushant Singh’s case, many calls were received in the name of AU.

“Who is this AU?” Shewale inquired.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav accused the Union and State Home Ministers of stalling the investigation for political reasons. He stated that during the BJP’s rule, state ex-intelligence chief Rashmi Shukla was given a clean cheat on a fast track in a phone-tapping case involving Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders.

On Thursday, Opposition Leader Ajit Pawar chastised the ruling party for stalling proceedings and diverting attention away from the real issues. Pawar said, “It is surprising that ruling parties are making a fuss about non-issues. They should be embarrassed for committing such nautanki.”

“For the third time today, the ruling party has caused a commotion in the House. The CBI investigated the Disha Salian case and determined that she committed suicide, so the case was closed. However, the ruling party has raised this issue again, and we wanted to address other important issues. I’m curious why they don’t trust CBI. This is against democracy, and we condemn the ruling party’s actions as nothing more than a charade,” Pawar said.

Disha Salian died on June 8, 2020, and Sushant Singh Rajput’s body was discovered hanging from the ceiling of his Bandra home on June 14, 2020.