Two more members of radical Hindu outfit arrested for techie's murder

Two more persons have been arrested in connection with last week's killing of an IT professional at suburban Hadapsar in Pune which witnessed violence in the wake of Facebook posts denigrating warrior king Shivaji and Shiv Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray, the police said.

Both the accused arrested on Sunday night are affiliated to self-styled outfit Hindu Rashtra Sena, suspected of involvement in the murder of 28-year-old Mohsin Shaikh, who was bludgeoned to death by a mob that went on a rampage following the detection on May 31 of controversial photographs on Facebook posted by unknown persons, an official from Hadapsar police station said.

With the fresh arrests, the number of HRS activists booked for the fatal attack on Shaikh stands at 19.

HRS chief Dhananjay Desai too was arrested on charges of distributing inflammatory literature detrimental to social harmony and his role in the June 2 mob violence was being investigated, the police said.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in parts of the city on Sunday night after another FB post which reportedly contained derogatory references against a prominent national figure surfaced on the social networking site, leading to protests by the Republican Party of India activists, the city police said.

A few buses were also damaged in the incidents of stone pelting even as swift action by the police brought the situation under control, Pune Municipal Corporation sources said.

The overall situation in the city and suburbs was peaceful and fully under control, the police control room said.

Image: Mohsin Shaikh, the techie who was killed in Pune allegedly by HRS activists.