On the night of 22nd June 2022, Chemist Umesh Kolhe was killed by some Islamists in Amravati of Maharashtra for allegedly sharing a social media post supporting former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The 54-year-old Medical professional ran a pharmacy ‘Amit Medical’ in the Tehsil office area, in Maharashtra’s Amravati. Ten days after Umesh Kolhe’s murder, the National Investigation team has taken over the probe into the case. While earlier the local police had clamed that it was a robbery attempt gone wrong, they have finally admited that Kolhe was killed for supporting Nupur Sharma on social media.
Meanwhile, Umesh Kolhe’s brother Mahesh Kolhe shared information about his brother’s murder while talking to the news agency ANI. He said that while his brother had forwarded some messages in support of Nupur Sharma in some WhatsApp groups, they didn’t think it will cause any trouble. He also said that his brother or the family didn’t get any threats.
Mahesh Kolhe said, “He never received any threats. My brother never told me that he is getting any death threats. He never shared any such thing. Now, from the day of the incident, the mobile is in the custody of the police. Therefore, we cannot even crosscheck the data and find whether he had received any threat call or not. Yes, there are some WhatsApp forwards from him which are sent almost 15 days ago. There was no reason for us to have any suspicion about anyone because we could not understand why anyone would murder him. So there is no question of suspecting anyone.”
#WATCH | My brother forwarded some messages about Nupur Sharma in some Whatsapp groups but we’re not able to understand why was he killed because of 2-4 forwarded messages? He didn’t forward them to anyone individually: Mahesh Kolhe, brother of Umesh Kolhe who was murdered pic.twitter.com/njk8X7IGnF
— ANI (@ANI) July 2, 2022
About the false details published by some of the newspapers, Mahesh Kolhe said, “In the initial phase of the investigation, we were just being told that two accused are arrested and then four accused are nabbed, and so on. But we were not being told the exact reason for the murder. Some newspapers published that it is a loot or robbery case. Though the police officials assured us that they have not told any such thing to any reporter. Some newspapers went on to publish that there was a brief scuffle between the attackers and my brother, but this is not the fact. The fact is just that they came, stabbed the knife, and ran away.”
#WATCH | He didn’t receive threats from anyone… We were told that during primary investigation, 2-4 people were arrested but some newspapers, without proper investigation started publishing that he was killed because of loot/robbery, but nothing as such happened: Mahesh Kolhe pic.twitter.com/bXh38FfNYR
— ANI (@ANI) July 2, 2022
Deceased Umesh Kolhe’s brother further said, “There were a few WhatsApp forwards sent by my brother a few days back. The forwards were about Nupur Sharma. They were shared in some groups just like any other messages. He did not send those messages to anyone in personal chats. But we are yet to understand why someone is killed just because of mere forwarding a message to some group.”
On the night of the murder, on June 22, Umesh Kolhe was on his way home with his son Sanket and daughter-in-law Vaishnavi on different bikes, when the culprits stopped him and then slit his throat using a Chinese knife. In the attack, Kolhe was attacked with a knife from the back of his neck and he was seriously injured. With heavy blood overflowing, Kolhe died on the spot. As per reports, a total of 5 people have been arrested so far. They include Mudasir, Shahrukh, Abdul, Shoaib, and Atib.
