lucknow

Updated: Oct 21, 2019 13:34 IST

Police in Uttar Pradesh on Monday announced a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh each for information that could lead to the capture of two alleged killers involved in the murder of Hindu outfit leader Kamlesh Tewari, a senior official said.

Kamlesh Tiwari, the founder of the Hindu Samaj Party (HSP), was murdered inside his house by the two men in Lucknow’s Khursheed Bagh on Friday in the fallout of “communal hate”, according to the police.

Tiwari 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.

Police in Gujarat have arrested Rashid Pathan, 23, a resident of Zillani Manjil in Limbayat area of Surat, his neighbour Faizan, 21, and Maulana Salim Sheikh, 24.

Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain and Rashid’s brother Pathan Moinuddin Ahmed, who murdered the Hindu Samaj Party founder are on the run.

Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police (DGP) OP Singh had said on Saturday that 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.

Singh said on Monday the reward was announced to get input about Hussain and Moinuddin, also from Surat, so that they could be arrested at the earliest.

Singh said while speaking to reporters that police are in touch anti-terror squads of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka as well as intelligence agencies for the arrest of the two assailants.

He did not rule out the terror angle in the brutal killing of Kamlesh Tiwari. He said the police are looking into all angles and probing each and every possibility very minutely.

He said so far findings suggested that the assailants also have links in Uttar Pradesh. He said some suspects in the state are still being questioned.

The arrest of the three men came after boxes of sweets from a shop in Surat were discovered at the crime scene police in Lucknow. The two killers in saffron kurtas were seen carrying the box on CCTV footage captured outside Tiwari’s house.

The sweet boxes, which was used to carry weapons including a country-made gun and knives, were bought from a shop Dharti Farsan in Surat’s Udhna area, officials said.

“The CCTV footage has confirmed that trio had come to buy sweets and boxes were later used to conceal weapons. We have also found a copy of the bill,” a Surat Police official said.

Police in Lucknow said on Sunday they have found blood-stained kurtas worn by Hussain and Moinuddin. The saffron-coloured kurtas, a bag, towels and other items were recovered from Lucknow’s Khalsa Inn Hotel in Lalbagh area, barely 1.5 kilometres from Tiwari’s house, during a search by the police.

Tiwari’s mother, Kusum, however, has alleged that her son was killed by a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader due to a land dispute. Reacting to the allegations, DGP Singh said on Sunday that Kusum’s allegations were being looked into.