Killers’ blood-stained kurtas, knife recovered
LUCKNOW: The two suspected killers of Hindu outfit leader Kamlesh Tiwari stayed in a hotel room barely 1.5 kilometers from his house in Khurshed Bagh where he was murdered on Friday afternoon, said police officials.
The police have found two saffron colour ‘kurtas’ which they were wearing at the time of committing the crime, blood stained knife apparently used in the crime and several other belongings from the hotel room during search by forensic experts.
Confirming the details, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kalanidhi Naithani said the two suspects booked the room number G-103 of Khalsa Inn hotel in Lalkuan, which is barely at 20 minutes of walking distance from Kamlesh Tiwari’s officecum-residence in Khurshed Bagh.
He said the two suspects booked the hotel room apparently with their original Aadhar cards, having names of Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain and Pathan Moinudeen Ahmad, both natives of Surat in Gujarat.
He said they checked in at the hotel room around 11.08 pm on Thursday night.
The two men who killed Tiwari were suspected to have moved towards Delhi on a train, according to the police probe.
Their locations were also tracked in Bareilly and Moradabad after they left Lucknow, police said.
The hotel’s CCTV footage showed they left the hotel around 10.38 am on Friday morning wearing saffron shade ‘kurtas’ and holding sweets box and returned around 1.21 pm after Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder. He said they stayed at Tiwari’s residence between 12 and 1 pm during which they executed the killing and escaped. He said the duo checked out from the hotel within 16 minutes after returning there and apparently left the city immediately.
He said the forensic team had examined the hotel during which they have collected multiple evidences and sealed the room.
The SSP said the forensic team recovered the knife and two kurtas having blood stains, one towel having blood stains, two bags, jeans, new mobile phone’s box, shaving kit and a few other things. “The blood samples have been collected for forensic examination,” he added.
He said the hotel is owned by one Harvinder Singh of Lucknow’s Arya Nagar but he has given it on lease to one Hemraj Singh of Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. He said the hotel owners, staffs and some people in vicinity have been questioned about the suspects and efforts are on to confirm the route used by the assailants to reach Khursheed Bagh from the hotel.
Hotel staff Arvind Chaurasia told police officials that the two suspects asked the address of “Baba Abbas’s mazar” that he failed to tell.
He said the duo later asked the route to reach Bada Imambada while leaving the hotel room at around 10.38 am on Friday morning. Chaurasia said one of the suspects, who was wearing white cap while leaving the hotel, was putting his hand in the pocket.
He said the cap from his head was also missing.
The state police on Saturday had arrested three men, aged between 21 and 24 years, from Surat, Gujarat in connection with the murder.
The deceased was earlier associated with Hindu Mahasabha but later quit and formed his own organisation, the Hindu Samaj Party.
DGP OP Singh had earlier said Tiwari murder was fallout of “communal hate” and it should be termed as radicalised killing and initially ruled out terror link.
The three conspirators were arrested in less than 24 hours of the murder on Friday afternoon.
The DGP said a total of five people from Surat, Gujarat were involved in the murder.
He said three conspirators have been arrested while efforts are on to search two others who executed the killing.