ATS officials with Shaikh (blue T-shirt) and Pathan (peach T-shirt).

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) officials on Tuesday nabbed that two key accused in Hindu Samaj Party founder Kamlesh Tewari murder case from Shamlaji on Gujarat-Rajasthan border.

Gujarat ATS officials said that they had arrested Ashfaqhussain Jakirhussain Shaikh, 34, and Moinuddin alias Moin Khurshid Pathan, 27, both residents of Surat city. ATS officials claimed that Shaikh was a medical representative (MR) and Pathan earned his livelihood by working as a food delivery boy.

Officials said that the two Surat men had first fled to Nepal from where they moved to Shahjahapur in Uttar Pradesh. “As they were running out of money, they had contacted family members seeking financial support,” said an official.

The officials said that as they had nobody at other places, they were returning to their place in Surat by taking lifts from private and commercial vehicles. On the basis of technical surveillance and human intelligence, ATS officials nabbed the two from Shamlaji.

Pathan and Shaikh, both residents of Limbayat area in Surat, had stabbed Tewari to death at his house in Khurshedbaugh locality of Lucknow on October 18. ATS officials stated they had hidden a pistol and knife in the box of ‘ghari’ (a famous Surat sweet) that they offered him as Diwali greetings.

Preliminary investigation of the trio revealed that Pathan and Shaikh travelled by train to Kanpur from where they took a taxi to Lucknow on October 16. In Lucknow, they stayed at Khalsa Inn hotel and cops have recovered saffron clothes from their room in the hotel. They had donned saffron clothes when they went to murder Tewari.

ATS stated that they found the location of Tewari ’s house at Khurshedbaugh in Lucknow using Google map. They called up Tewari at around midnight on October 16 and told him that they wanted to seek his blessings for Diwali and give him famous sweets of Surat.

The next day they reached Tewari’s house and stabbed him to death. They also shot at him once. The bullet grazed him on the butt and ricocheted.

Gujarat anti-terrorism squad (ATS) had earlier nabbed Pathan’s brother Rashid and two others - Maulana Mohsin Shaikh and Faizan Member - from Surat on Saturday early morning.

Till now, Gujarat ATS has arrested five people in the case, which is strongly suspected to be a blasphemy killing.

