3 arrested day after UP Hindu outfit leader Kamlesh Tewari’s murder in Lucknow

A joint team of police from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat has arrested three people and is questioning them in connection with the murder Hindu outfit leader Kamlesh Tiwari, UP’s director general of police OP Singh said on Saturday.

DGP OP Singh said the murder of 52-year-old Kamlesh Tiwari, the founder of the Hindu Samaj Party, was a fallout of communal hate. Kamlesh Tiwari was killed by two unidentified men in Lucknow’s Khursheed Bagh on Friday.

“UP police traced the conspirators through the bill of sweets purchased from a sweet shop in Surat with the help of Gujarat’s anti-terror squad,” Singh said while talking to reporters in Lucknow.

“A total of five people were involved in the murder. Three conspirators have been arrested while efforts are to search two others, who executed the killing,” he added.

The three arrested men have been identified as Maulana Sheikh Salim, 24, a worker at a saree shop, Faizan, a 21-year-old shoe shop worker, and tailor Rashid Ahmad alias Rashad Pathan, 23. The DGP ruled out any terror link to the murder.

The state government has constituted a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had also sought a detailed report on the incident from the additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi and DGP Singh.

Kamlesh Tiwari’s family have taken his body to their native place in Mahmudabad in Sitapur.

Sources said that, they have said they won’t cremate his body until chief minister Yogi Adityanath pays them a visit. His wife Kiran has said she will set herself on fire.

Kiran Tiwari had earlier accused two clerics from Bijnor for the murder of her husband, saying they had announced a bounty for execute him.

She has said in her complaint to the police that Mohammad Mufti Naem Kazmi and Imam Maulana Anuvarul Haq of Bijnore were involved in her husband’s murder.

She said they had announced a bounty of Rs 15 million for executing her husband earlier.

“My husband was in his office and speaking to two unknown persons. Suddenly, there was complete silence for four to five minutes. When I came out to see him, I saw two people running away from the spot and my husband lying on the floor, bleeding,” she said in her complaint.

Family members and locals initially told the police that Tiwari was shot as well as stabbed by the attackers, who were wearing saffron kurtas. Police officials later said no bullet wound had been found on his body and that he died of stab wounds.

The police’s initial investigation into the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari has hinted that the two attackers had links with Gujarat, as they had brought weapons in a box of a famous sweet shop of Surat.

A pistol, which was recovered from the crime spot, and a knife used to slit the victim’s throat were in the same box, suggested the police probe.

Lucknow’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kalanidhi Naithani said the police team had managed to retrieve CCTV footage of the two suspects and multiple teams had been deployed to nab the assailants.

Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder led to outrage on social media and some Hindu outfits staged a protest in Lucknow to demand arrest of the killers.

Several saints in Ayodhya also expressed concern over the murder of Kamlesh Tewari. The Ayodhya Sant Samaj and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have demanded proper investigation of the incident and capital punishment of killers.

One of Tiwari’s close friends Sushil Bajpai said Tiwari had been associated once with the Hindu Mahasabha but he quit the organisation and formed the Hindu Samaj Party in January 2017.