The Mangaluru City Police revealed on Saturday that Adil Mehroof, the brother of murder victim Fazil, allegedly paid ₹5 lakh—₹3 lakh in advance—to a group of men to assassinate 32-year-old Suhas Shetty. This revelation came after an investigation into the murder, which was carried out in retaliation for an earlier failed attack on one of the accused by Suhas and his associates.

Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal clarified that the killing was driven “partly by revenge” and ruled out any communal or organized crime connections. There was no evidence suggesting the crime was linked to a banned group or had communal undertones.

So far, the police have arrested eight people, with two others identified but still at large. The accused had made two previous unsuccessful attempts to target Suhas before eventually executing the plot in April. Suhas was chased in a car, cornered, and brutally stabbed to death, later succumbing to his injuries at AJ Shetty Hospital.

Abdul Safwan, a resident of Shantigudde, is believed to have masterminded the conspiracy. Safwan had survived a 2023 murder attempt allegedly carried out by Suhas. After discussing the revenge plan with his friends, he reached out to Adil Mehroof to finalize the murder plot.

The killing comes nearly two years after the murder of Fazil in July 2022, which followed the death of BJP youth leader Praveen Nettaru. These incidents had previously triggered communal unrest in coastal Karnataka, and the NIA is currently investigating Fazil’s murder.

Police have also registered three new cases of stabbings involving Muslim men in the city following Suhas’s killing, and investigations into these are ongoing.

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