Inciting speech in 2015 led to Kamlesh’s killing, claims UP DGP
Denying any terror link behind the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, leader of a little-known Hindu outfit, Uttar Pradesh’s Director General of Police OP Singh on Saturday claimed to have a made a breakthrough within 24 hours of the killing by arresting three accused, including the mastermind. All the three accused were taken into custody in Surat in Gujarat in a joint operation of the police forces of the two States.
Two more arrests were made in Bijnor district of UP where Muslim clerics Mohammed Mufti Naeem Kazmi and Imam Maulana Anwarul Haq were held after being named in an FIR lodged by Tiwari’s wife Kiran.
The UP DGP claimed that the suspects were “radicalised” and appeared to have targeted Kamlesh for his inflammatory remarks made in 2015.
“So far, there is no terror angle associated with this incident,” the DGP said at a Press conference here, a day after the Hindu Samaj Party chief was killed at his home in Lucknow’s Khurshed Bagh.
Tiwari’s wife named the two accused held in UP in her complaint alleging that the duo had announced a bounty of `1.5 crore on Kamlesh head in 2016. However, Tiwari’s mother Kusuma alleged that he was killed by a “local BJP leader” due to a temple dispute in a village.
Tiwari’s cremation was also delayed as family members were adamant on meeting Chief Minister Adityanath to put forth their nine demands, including a probe by NIA, Government job for victim’s son and security to family members.
The Chief Minister, meanwhile, said he was ready to meet Tiwari’s family members. He said such incidents will not be tolerated, and those involved will not be spared.
According to police, the three persons detained in Surat by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) were identified as Faizan Yunus Bhai, Maulana Mohsin Sheikh and Rashid Ahmed Khursheed Ahmed Pathan.
The DGP said that Uttar Pradesh police and their Gujarat counterparts were interrogating them.
Elaborating on the arrest of the three persons in Surat, the DGP said, “On the basis of a packet of sweets obtained from the crime spot, the Gujarat Police was contacted and a team was sent there. A CCTV footage of a Surat-based sweets shop was examined and Faizan Yunus Bhai was identified.”
He said later Sheikh and Pathan were detained. “Going by investigation and joint interrogation, it was clear that these three persons were part of the conspiracy to murder Kamlesh Tiwari,” Singh said, adding that their interrogation revealed that they had no links with any terror organisation.
