Kasim killing: report to HC before June 30

The state government on Wednesday assured the Karnataka High Court that it would submit the final report on the  murder of advocate Naushad Khasim, a resident of Mangalore, before June 30.
Naushad Kasim, a criminal lawyer, was allegedly murdered in a shootout on April 10, 2009.

He was the defence lawyer for Rashid Malabari in a case against the underworld don Chhota Shakeel. Purushotham Poojary, senior lawyer, accused the state police of hiding some facts to help the don and suspected the involvement of some members of the force in the murder. There were also allegations that the state police was acting as an extended hand of the Sangh Parivar to protect his murderers.

Naushad had also appeared as the defence counsel in Padmapriya case and BJP leader Sukhanand Shetty murder case. Poojary said that this might have irked the some policemen.

In this context, the South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM) had demanded judicial intervention in the case.

Converting a letter sent in this regard by SICHREM to Chief Justice PD Dinakaran as a Public Interest Litigation, the court had sent notices to Jayant Shetty, DySP of Crime Records, Venkatesh Prasanna, M Shiva Prasad and Valentine D’Souza.

The government lawyer today submitted in the court that the police have arrested five persons related to the case till date and there was no involvement of police or underworld dons in his murder.
He said the investigation had reached the final stages.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice PD Dinakaran, adjourned the case to July 3.