KAMLESH TIWARI MURDER CASE: THREE ARRESTED FROM GUJARAT

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday arrested three men from Surat in Gujarat and questioned two clerics from Bijnor in connection with Friday’s killing of the leader of a Hindu group in Lucknow.

Kamlesh Tiwari, founder of the Hindu Samaj Party and one of the appellants in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit of Ayodhya, was killed in the fallout of “communal hate”, director general of police (DGP) OP Singh said in a press conference at the UP Police headquarters in Lucknow.

The arrests came less than 24 hours after Tiwari was murdered inside his house by two unidentified men in Lucknow’s Khursheed Bagh on Friday. The killers were allegedly known to Tiwari and spent around 36 minutes with him on the pretext of gifting him sweets and seeking help in an inter-religious marriage of a friend, Singh said.

The killers were allowed to meet Tiwari by the security guard posted at his residence only after the leader of the Hindu group allowed it.

Tiwari’s son and an aide were sent to the market to purchase something, and it was during this period that Tiwari was killed, the DGP said.

UP Police traced the conspirators through the bills for sweets purchased from a confectionary in Surat with the help of Gujarat’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS). Five people — all from Surat — were involved in the murder and three of them have been arrested while a search is underway for the two others who executed the killing, Singh said.