3 Surat men held for ‘plotting’ murder of Kamlesh Tiwari
UP DGP rules out terror link, says Hindu outfit leader’s killing fallout of communal hate
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 Khurshed 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.
The three arrested men were identified as Maulana Mohsin Sheikh, 24, a worker at a saree shop; Faizan Yunus, a 21-yearold who worked in a shoe shop; and 23-year-old tailor Rashid Ahmad alias Rashid Pathan.
Singh said Sheikh radicalised the other four men by showing them a video of a hate speech by Tiwari. Pathan allegedly hatched the murder plan while Yunus purchased sweets from a shop in Surat, the DGP said. Yunus was spotted on closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of the sweet shop.
The box in which the sweets were purchased was used by two people — the police did not reveal their names — to carry weapons to commit the murder, Singh said.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath called the murder of Tiwari “an act of mischief to create terror” and said such incidents will not be tolerated.
“This is an act of mischief to create terror... The elements who create an atmosphere of fear and terror in the state will be strongly dealt with, and their plans crushed. This type of incident will not be tolerated, and those involved will not be spared,” Adityanath said.
Initial investigations into the murder of Tiwari led the police towards the two attackers’ link with Gujarat, as they had brought weapons in a box of the popular sweet shop in Surat. A pistol, which was recovered from the crime scene, and a knife used to slit the victim’s throat were hidden in the same box, the DGP said.
The two men who carried out
the murder reside in Surat but have links in Uttar Pradesh.
The two clerics from Bijnor named by Tiwari’s wife Kiran in her police complaint have also been questioned, the senior police official said. However, their involvement in the killing has not been established so far, he added.
Kiran Tiwari, in her complaint, said Mohammad Mufti Naeem Kazmi and Imam Maulana Anuvarul Haq were involved in her husband’s murder. Kazmi and Haq had announced a bounty of ₹51 lakh for beheading Kamlesh Tiwari after his hate speech in 2015, Singh said.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Police detained a man in Nagpur in connection with Tiwari’s murder. He was in touch with the two assailants who killed Tiwari, said UP DGP OP Singh.
He said the two people who carried out the murder had called the man arrested in Nagpur soon after the crime.
The senior police officer ruled out any terror angle into the murder. “We are working in collaboration with the Gujarat ATS. So far, no link with any terrorist outfit has been established. We will look into all details and take action,” he said.
The state government had on Friday constituted a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the murder, while Adityanath sought a detailed report on the incident from additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi and DGP Singh. After initial reluctance, the family of Kamlesh Tiwari cremated his body at his native place in Mahmoodabad, Sitapur, on Saturday, people aware of the developments said. The authorities assured the family a meeting with the chief minister on Sunday after he returns from poll campaigning in Maharashtra, they said.
Tiwari’s family has demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe of the murder. “We do not trust anyone. My father was killed although he had security guards, how can we possibly trust the administration then?,” Satyam, son of Kamlesh Tiwari, told news agency ANI.
Tiwari’s mother, Kusum, alleged that her son was killed by a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. “My son was killed by a local BJP leader... due to a temple land dispute in village,” the mother told reporters.
Tiwari was associated with the Hindu Mahasabha but had quit to form the Hindu Samaj Party in January 2017. He operated a local news group, Rashtravadi Dharamsatta. “Tiwari had filed a civil petition in the Supreme Court in 2011 challenging the Allahabad high court’s decision to trifurcate the disputed site at the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya,” said Vishnu Shankar Jain, the Supreme Court lawyer who appeared on Tewari’s behalf.
“Tiwari had visited Ayodhya to express solidarity with the Ram Mandir movement,” said Sharad Sharma, regional spokesperson, Vishwa Hindu Parishad.