Niranjan Hiremath added that the killer Fayaz, after getting rejected by Neha, had continued stalking her. Neha's every movement was followed and he had engaged a group of people to know all the details like the timings of coming to college, the gates she used to enter through, the classes she attended, and the places she visited.
“They were forcing her to convert. Since she didn’t agree to religious conversion, she was murdered,” Niranjan Hiremath, the Congress Councillor from Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC), said
The complainant said that caste-based slurs were used against her and that the accused told her she would have to convert to Islam since she belonged to a backward caste.
When the news of the attack spread, members of the Hindu community gathered outside the hospital and demanded justice for Umesh. They also sought the immediate arrest of the perpetrators.
A police official informed, “The killers entered the room from the first floor and killed Parashuram, Lakshmi and Akanksha. Hearing a loud noise, Karthik went to the first floor to check and was also killed.”
The accused’s mother Mamtaz alleged that there is no ‘Love Jihad’ angle in this murder case. She added, “Fayaz was under depression. He was sitting at home for one and a half years.”
Congress leader Niranjan Hiremath, father Neha who was killed by Fayaz for rejecting his advances, voiced his discontent with the leaders of his party for negating the Love Jihad angle in the case