Blood-stained kurta, bag found from hotel Kamlesh Tiwari murder suspects stayed in

Police in Lucknow said on Sunday they have found blood-stained kurtas worn by the two suspects who killed Kamlesh Tiwari, the founder of the Hindu Samaj Party, on Friday.

The saffron-coloured kurtas, a bag, towels and other items were recovered from the Khalsa Inn Hotel in Lalbagh area of the capital of Uttar Pradesh city during a search by the police, officials said.

During their investigation, the police found that two men from Surat in Gujarat—Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain and Pathan Moinuddin Ahmed—had checked into the hotel at 11pm on October 17.

The men left the hotel at 1.37pm on October 18 after killing Kamlesh Tiwari inside his house in Khursheed Bagh locality at around 1pm on the same day.

Lucknow’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kalanidhi Naithani said their probe is on and that the police team is interrogating the hotel staff.

The two men, among the five said to be involved in the murder, were captured on CCTV footage from outside Kamlesh Tiwari’s home and are yet to be arrested.

Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police OP Singh had said on Saturday that three men were arrested from Surat in connection with the murder of the 52-year-old Kamlesh Tiwari less than 24 hours of the attack.

The top police official had said the murder was a fall out of “communal hate” and should be termed as “radicalised killing”. He had also ruled out any terror link with the incident.

Police have said they could trace the three men after the two killers were seen carrying a box of sweets from a shop in Surat on CCTV and by scanning the footage from 25 CCTV cameras and more than three dozen mobile phone numbers and detention of 15 people.

The police’s initial investigation into Tiwari’s murder had hinted that the two attackers had links with Gujarat, as they had brought weapons in a box of a famous sweet shop in Surat.

A pistol, which was recovered from the crime spot, and a knife used to slit the victim’s throat were in the same box, the initial probe had suggested.

The sweets box had details of a Surat shop from where it was purchased as well as a receipt which helped in getting details of purchase date and time.

Naithani had said on Saturday that their coordination with Gujarat police helped trace Faizan Yunus, 21, who purchased sweets from the Surat shop. Through him, the police reached the key conspirators – saree shop worker Maulana Mohsin Sheikh, 24, and tailor Rashid Ahmad alias Rashid Pathan, 23.

“Faizan was clearly spotted in the Gujarat shop’s CCTV footage,” Naithani had said.

DGP Singh had said Sheikh had radicalised the other four men by showing a video of Kamlesh Tiwari’s hate speech against Muslims in 2015. Rashid hatched the murder plan while Faizan was the person who purchased sweets from the Surat shop, according to Singh.

Officials have also said that the woman also in a saffron kurta and seen walking behind the two suspects in the CCTV footage near Tiwari’s house was also rounded up, but her involvement was not found.

Demand for justice

Kamlesh Tiwari’s family met Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath earlier in the day and demanded that his statue must be installed Khursheed Bagh where he was killed and a road named after him in the area.

“He (UP CM) assured us that justice will be done. We demanded capital punishment for the murderers. He assured us that they will be punished,” Tiwari’s wife Kiran said after the meeting, according to news agency ANI.

Tiwari’s mother Kusum has alleged the involvement of a BJP leader in the killing of her son. His son Satyam has said he does not “trust anyone” and demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the murder.

The Adityanath government has already announced security to Tiwari’s family which would also get a licensed firearm. It is also expected to announce monetary compensation, a government job to Tiwari’s son along with a house for the family.

Amid criticism from the opposition, Adityanath said he was informed by the police that the assailants had apparently fixed an appointment with Tiwari.

“They had tea and refreshments at Tiwari’s place. They were allowed in by the security guards only after Tiwari asked the security personnel to let them in. The dastardly killing happened when Tiwari’s personal assistant and his son had been sent for some work,” Adityanath said.

The two men who killed Tiwari were suspected to have moved towards Delhi on a train, according to the police probe. Their locations were also tracked in Bareilly and Moradabad after they left Lucknow.

Tiwari was associated with the Hindu Mahasabha in the past, but he quit the organisation and formed the Hindu Samaj Party in January 2017.

He had 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.