LUCKNOW: Three people were arrested while two clerics from Bijnor are being interrogated in connection with the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, Uttar Pradesh Police chief OP Singh said on Saturday.
The murder of Tiwari, the founder of the Hindu Samaj Party, was the fallout of “communal hatred”, Singh told a press conference. “With the help of Gujarat ATS, the UP police traced the conspirators of the crime through the bill of sweets purchased from a shop in Surat,” Singh said.
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“Five people were involved in the murder. Three conspirators were arrested while efforts are on to search two assailants.”
Two assailants had murdered Tiwari in Lucknow’s Khurshed Bagh on Friday. As per the police, the breakthrough happened when, in a joint operation, the police teams of Moradabad, Rampur and STF, picked up five men after stopping the Gorakhpur-Dehradun Express at the outer of Moradabad station on Saturday morning.
The three arrested accused were 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.
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Singh said Salim is believed to have radicalised the other four men by showing a video of Tiwari’s hate speech against Muslims in 2015. Notably, the National Security Act was invoked against Tiwari for his blasphemous remarks.
Rashid hatched the murder conspiracy while Faizan was the person who purchased sweets from Surat shop, the DGP said.
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“In an operation in coordination with the Gujarat police, our personnel spotted Faizan while rummaging through the CCTV footages of the sweet shop in Gujarat.”The same box was used by the two assailants to conceal weapons when they entered Tiwari’s office to kill him.
The DGP claimed that initial probe had indicated that the assailants had Gujarat links. A pistol, which was recovered from the crime spot, and a knife used to slit the victim’s throat were brought in the box, suggested the police probe.
Complicity of crime not established
The two clerics from Bijnor named by Kamlesh Tiwari’s wife Kiran in her police complaint have been questioned. But, the Uttar Pradesh Police said, their complicity in the crime was not yet established.