Hindu Group Leader Kamlesh Tiwari Shot Dead In Lucknow
LUCKNOW : Kamlesh Tiwari, the leader of a political organisation in Uttar Pradesh called Hindu Samaj Party, was shot dead at his residence in Lucknow this afternoon.
Eyewitnesses say two men, one of whom was wearing a saffron scarf, met with him on the pretext of gifting Diwali sweets and, once inside his home, allegedly slit his throat and shot him multiple times with a firearm before escaping.
Mr Tiwari died as he was being rushed to hospital. The police have not yet made arrests in the case but have recovered a pistol from the scene of the crime. Kamlesh Tiwari founded the Hindu Samaj Party two years ago.
In 2015 he allegedly made derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad, which created huge controversy and massive protests. He was arrested in connection with the case and charged under the National Security Act (NSA), which the Allahabad High Court recently revoked.
Police say that prima facie this is a case of personal enmity and that the killers were known to the Kamlesh Tiwari. According to OP Singh, the Director-General of Police, the killers met with the victim for 36 minutes.As many as ten teams have been formed to crack this case, according to Lucknow Police Chief Kalanidhi Naithani. Important clues have been recovered from CCTV footage in the area.
This is the fourth such incident in Uttar Pradesh this month. On Saturday BJP corporator Dhara Singh, 47, was shot dead by unidentified attackers while on his way to work at a sugar mill in Sahranpur district.
Only a few days before that another BJP leader – former student activist Kabir Tiwari – was killed in Basti district. His death provoked student groups into a violent rampage and the burning of government vehicles. Kabir Tiwari’s death also prompted the transfer of District Superintendent Pankaj Kumar, against whom a departmental inquiry has been initiated.
Finally, on October 8, a third BJP leader – Chaudhary Yashpal Singh – was shot by bike-borne attackers also in Deoband district. Yashpal Singh was the former District Vice President of BJP Kisan Morcha and his elder brother Chaudhary Shiv Kumar is the headman of their home village of Miragpur.
The leader of a Hindu group who had been convicted for making allegedly derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad was murdered outside his house in Lucknow in broad daylight on Friday, reports have said.
While several news websites have identified Kamlesh Tiwari as a former Hindu Mahasabha leader, the one group he was certifiably attached to is the Hindu Samaj Party, which he founded two years ago.
According to Indian Express Tiwari was the “self-proclaimed” working president of the Hindu Mahasabha, on a ticket of which he contested in the 2012 elections and lost. Ten police teams have been constituted to investigate the case and leads have reportedly been obtained from CCTV cameras in the region. Tiwari was one of the appellants in the Ayodhya title dispute case in the Supreme Court. It is not known whether this association is responsible for his murder.
Reports have quoted police as having held that this was a case of personal enmity. Two men, one of whom was in a saffron scarf, allegedly met Tiwari at his Lucknow house at around 11 am. Director general of police O.P. Singh as having said that the two were with Tiwari for around 36 minutes.
The Express report, meanwhile, quotes his associate Swatantradeep Singh as having said that one of the accused asked for a cigarette which Singh went to buy. Upon returning, Singh reportedly found Tiwari lying dead in the room.
is throat had allegedly been slit and he had been shot multiple times. In 2015, Tiwari’s alleged comments on Prophet Mohammad had led to widespread protests among Muslims across the country and the slapping of a National Security Act charge against him. In 2016, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court quashed the NSA against him, reported Express.(Bureau Report with agency inputs ).
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