The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has filed the charge sheet in the Chandru murder case, reported in J. J. Nagar on April 4, that became controversial as the Home Minister initially claimed and later retracted that the victim was killed because he did not speak in Urdu.
The CID charge sheet, explaining the circumstances that led to the murder, said the accused picked up a fight with the victim’s friend for “staring at him”, which eventually led to a fight in which the victim was killed.
The charge sheet says Chandru and his friend, Simon, had been to a bakery in Hosaguddadahalli around 2.30 a.m. on the fateful night, and as they were entering the bakery after parking their scooter, the prime accused in the case, Shahid Pasha, took objection to Simon “staring at him” and abused him.
When Simon replied, and abused him verbally, Shahid Pasha said he did not understand Kannada, and asked him to repeat the same in Urdu during the fight. The situation turned worse with Shahid Pasha and Simon coming to blows. As Chandru tried to intervene and stop the fight, the accused stabbed him in the thighs, charge sheet says.
Though the charge sheet mentions that the accused asked the complainant to speak in Urdu, the circumstances explained in the charge sheet clearly indicates the murder was not over language.
Contradicting the Home Minister’s initial claims, the then City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant had publicly clarified that the murder was not over language, for which BJP hit back at him and accused him of misleading the Home Minister. The case was eventually transferred to the CID, which has now filed the charge sheet in the case, confirming the version of events reported by the city police.
