Agencies of four states hunting for Tiwari’s killers
Another associate of the two killers arrested by Maharashtra ATS from Nagpur
LUCKNOW : Amidst video footage showing presence of the two killers of a Hindu outfit leader Kamlesh Tiwari still being in UP, police agencies of four states, including Special Task Force of UP police and Anti-Terror Squads (ATS) of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala, with the help of central agencies, have intensified their hunt for the killers.
As on now, the police agencies have failed to arrest the two alleged assailants, Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain, 21, and Pathan Moinuddin Ahmed, 23, whose physical presence was last spotted in UP’s Shahjahanpur. However, the Maharashtra ATS have succeeded in arresting one of their alleged associates Sayyed Asim Ali, 29, from Nagpur.
The UP police team has already taken his transit remand from a Nagpur court and is bringing him to Lucknow for further investigation.
A senior police official privy
to the investigation said the Maharashtra ATS took Ali in custody from his hideout in Nagpur on the night of October 19 itself but he was formally arrested after it was confirmed that he was in constant touch with the other accused in the murder of the president of Hindu Samaj Party (HSP) Kamlesh Tiwari, who was one of the appellants in the Ayodhya disputed. He had filed a civil petition in the Supreme Court in 2011 challenging the Allahabad high court’s decision to trifur
cate the disputed site of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
The officer said the Maharashtra ATS interrogated Ali rigorously and it was revealed that he had played a very important role in the Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder case.
The official said the Gujarat ATS also coordinated very well in tracing the three alleged conspirators Faizan Yunus, 21, Maulana Mohsin Sheikh, 24,
and Rashid Ahmad alias Rashid Pathan, 23, and arresting them on the intervening night of October 18 and 19.
He said the arrest of the three men came after boxes of sweets from a shop in Surat were discovered at the crime scene in Lucknow. He said the two killers, in saffron kurtas, were seen carrying the box on CCTV footage captured outside Tiwari’s house.
The official said the sweet box, which was used to carry weapons, including a countrymade gun and knives, was bought from a shop Dharti Farsan in Surat.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, UP director general of police (DGP) OP Singh said the state police are in touch with anti-terror squads of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka as well as central intelligence agencies for the arrest of the two assailants.He said he personally spoke to DGPs of Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra over the matter to coordinate in the case. Moreover, the UP STF is already deployed to trace the killers, he added.
Singh added that they did not rule out a terror angle in the brutal killing of Kamlesh Tiwari, who was shot and stabbed before his throat was slit by the two assailants on October 18.He said findings suggest that the assailants also have links in Uttar Pradesh and some suspects in the state are still being questioned.