The Hindu Mahasabha leader was shot in Lucknow on Friday. (Photo: ANI) The Hindu Mahasabha leader was shot in Lucknow on Friday. (Photo: ANI)

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has agreed to bear the legal expenses and offered the service of its legal cell for the defence of the five accused arrested in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder case.

They appealed to the Jamiat, a leading organisation of Islamic scholars of the Deobandi school of thought, for aid to fight the legal battle as they were poor.

Kamlesh Tiwari, national president of the Hindu Samaj Party, was allegedly shot and stabbed to death by Farid alias Moinuddin Pathan, and Ashfaq Shaikh, both residents of Surat, at his house in lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, on October 18 afternoon.

Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad and Surat Crime Branch have arrested five accused allegedly involved in the conspiracy and murder of Tiwari. Apart from Rashid and Ashfaq, the others are Maulana Mohsin Shaikh, Faizan Shaikh and Moinuddin Pathan, also residents of Surat. Moinuddin and Rashid are brothers. Maharashtra ATS had also arrested one more accused identified as Sayyad Asim ali from Nagpur.

All the arrested are at present with Lucknow police custody and they are interrogating motive behind murder and who others are involved in this entire operation.

After the arrests made headlines, members of the Surat wing of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind met the family members of all the five murder accused. The team spoke to the family members asking what possible help they would need. The family members of all the five accused told the Jamiat members that they are unable to bear the expenses for a good lawyer. The Jamiat agreed to bear the expenses after getting an application in writing from the kin of the accused.

“We met with the delegation of Jamiat Ulema -e-Hind, and they took details of our children and expressed their help. We showed them our house and told them that we are not financially strong to bear the legal expenses,” Farid and Rashid’s father Khurshid Pathan. “The delegates took our signature on a paper in which they had mentioned that we are willing to take help from the Jamiat. There is no other way, and we are thankful to the organisation for coming forward and extending legal help.”

In a telephonic conversation, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Secretary Hakimuddin Kashmi and General Secretary is Maulana Mehmood Madni, said, “We are ready to provide all possible help to the families of the five arrested in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder case. We have also taken consent of our general secretary Maulana Mehmood Madni and we have taken a decision to give all the legal assistance to the family members of five arrested ones. We also have our legal cell, which will take up the case and fight it. We have received the application of the family members of all the five murder accused and we are going ahead with it.”

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