Hindu leader’s murder was planned in Dubai, ATS cracks case; 6 arrested

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, October 19

The Gujarat ATS has claimed that the murder of the former Hindu Mahasabha president Kamlesh Tiwari in Lucknow on Friday had been planned in Dubai.

The links of the murder has been established to Surat in Gujarat. The pistol used in the murder and left at the murder site had been bought in Surat.

Similarly, the box of sweets, which the killers had ostensibly come to present as a Diwali gift also is of a famous Surat sweetmeat shop.

The killers had hid the murder weapon inside the box – the firearm and a knife used to slit Tiwari’s throat at the office of the Hindu Samaj party as Tiwari’s office cum residence in Khursheed bagh.

While the Uttar Pradesh police arrested one Muslim cleric from Bijnore in western Uttar Pradesh and the Gujarat ATS has arrested six persons from Surat for their alleged involvement in the killing of ring wing leader Kamlesh Tiwari in Lucknow on Friday.

The UP Police are in constant touch with the Gujarat ATS. It had contacted the Gujarat ATS to check the authenticity of a tweet posted by Tiwari on October 13 citing a report a Gujarat English daily about the chargesheet filed by Gujarat ATS against two ISIS suspects Ubaid Mirza and Kasim Stimberwala arrested by Gujarat ATS on October 2017 for planning to eliminate Tiwari for his derogatory remarks against the Prophet.

UP police has picked up Maulana Anwarul Haque after Tiwari’s widow Kiran Tiwari filed a complaint naming two clerics at the Naka Hindola police station yesterday. The other cleric is Mufti Naseem Qazmi.

In 2016 Qazmi had announced a reward of Rs 51 lakh on her husband’s head while Haque had announced an award of Rs 1.5 crore for beheading Kamlesh Tiwari following his derogatory statement against the Prophet for which he was later arrested under NSA.

After Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sought a report on Tiwari’s killing the DGP O P Singh appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the murder late last night.

The SIT is headed by Lucknow Range IG S K Bhagar and including Lucknow SP Crime Dinesh Puri and Deputy SP (STF) P K Mishra .

In the CCTV footage a woman has also been spotted with the two suspected men.

Strangely Tiwari who had been provided security was alone at the time of his murder by saffron-clad killers.  One guard was on leave and the other was sitting on the ground floor of the building while Tiwari and the killers were in the office of Hindu Samaj Party on the first floor.

Tiwari’s lawyer in the Suprme Court Hari Shankar Jain confirmed that Tiwari on behalf of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha had filed a petition and was one of the appellants in the title suit of the Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi awaiting a decision.