LUCKNOW: Having failed to arrest the killers of Hindu Samaj Party chief Kamlesh Tiwari after three days of his murder in a busy locality of Lucknow, UP Police on Monday announced a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh each for any information that could lead to their capture.
Kamlesh Tiwari, the founder of the Hindu Samaj Party (HSP), was murdered inside his residence-cum-office by the two men in Lucknow’s Khurshed Bagh area on Friday in the fallout of “communal hate.” Earlier on Saturday, in an operation involving teams of Gujarat police, three persons including Rashid Pathan, 23, a resident of Zillani Manjil in Limbayat area of Surat, his neighbour Faizan, 21, and Maulana Salim Sheikh, 24, were arrested for hatching the conspiracy of Kamesh Tiwari’s murder.
However, Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain and Rashid’s brother Pathan Moinuddin Ahmed, who are believed to have executed the crime by shooting Tiwari and later slit his throat to ensure death, are still at large.
While interacting with media persons on Monday, the UP DGP said the reward on the information of two alleged killers so that they can be arrested at the earliest. Singh claimed that UP police was in touch with its counterparts in four states -- Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana -- and also Nepal to nab the duo at the earliest.
The police sources also claimed that they were tipped off about the presence of the duo in Shahjahanpur and they were spotted in the CCTV footage at a hotel. Though the SIT and STF, along with district police, conducted widespread raids in hotels, lodges and madrasas in the district early in the morning, no substantial evidence was found.The STF is camping in Shahjahanpur in anticipation of further leads.
According to police sources, the accused duo had hired an SUV, which was later found by the investigation team, in Palia area of Lakhimpur Kheri district to come to Shahjahanpur. They left the SUV at the Shahjahanpur railway station and checked-in to a local hotel.
Lucknow police on Sunday had recovered blood-stained kurtas worn by the alleged killers. The saffron-coloured kurtas, a bag, towels and other items were recovered from Khalsa Inn Hotel in Lalbagh area, just little over a kilometre away from the crime spot. Tiwari had also filed a civil petition in the Supreme Court in 2011 challenging Allahabad High Court’s decision to trifurcate the disputed site of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.