NIA Files UAPA Charges against Tailor’s Murderers, One of them has Pakistan Links, Says Police

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 29: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which took over the Udaipur tailor murder case at the behest of the union home ministry has added stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against both the arrested alleged assailants as the Rajasthan police said one of the duo had Pakistan links and had visited Karachi in 2014.

A day after his brutal murder, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday directed the NIA to take over the probe of the Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal’s murder to look into all terror angles in the gruesome murder which even the Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said could not have been perpetrated without the backing of national or international terror groups.

Besides imposing curfew in the areas under seven police stations in Udaipur, the Rajasthan government has also suspended internet all over the state for a day and imposed section 144 banning assembly of more than four people in the entire state for a month.

Lal’s body was brought back to his house on Wednesday and was later cremated amidst a huge gathering who offered floral tributes to the deceased, a victim of religious fanaticism. Heavy security was deployed outside his residence, where over 100 people had gathered on Wednesday morning.

The Rajasthan director general of police ML Lather said preliminary investigations into the gruesome killing had revealed that one of the duo who killed the tailor has links with Pak-based Dawat-e-Islami and had visited Karachi in 2014. The police have also detained 10 more people in connection with the killing so far, besides the two alleged assailants who were held within hours of the crime from the neighbouring Rajsamand district. The two assailants identified as Riyaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad, hacked Kanhaiya Lal to death with a cleaver at his shop in Udaipur on Tuesday and posted videos online saying they are avenging an insult to Islam.

Soon after the Udaipur murder, allegedly because of his reported social media post supporting the controversial remarks of the suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma against Prophet Mohammad, another of her colleague Naveen Jindal, who too was expelled by the BJP for anti-Prophet comments, have received death threats, the Delhi police said.

Nearly three weeks before he was killed in his tailoring shop in Udaipur, the victim was arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Tailor Kanhaiya Lal, whose grisly murder on camera by two men triggered tension in Rajasthan’s Udaipur and a terror investigation, had complained to the police about threats from his neighbours over a social media post.

The 48-year old tailor Kanhaiya Lal was arrested on June 11 over a post on social media supporting BJP leader Nupur Sharma. On June 11, Kanhaiya Lal’s neighbour Nazim had filed a case against him over a controversial social media post and he was arrested.

He was released on bail a day later but on June 15, he went to the police complaining about death threats.
In the complaint, he claimed that the social media post was “sent by mistake” by his son, who was playing a game on his mobile phone. “Five-six days ago, my son, while playing a game on the mobile phone, suddenly put up an objectionable post by mistake, which I didn’t know of,” Kanhaiya Lal wrote in his complaint on June 15. “But two days later, two men came and tried to take my mobile phone,” he said. He said for three days, two men had been lurking near his shop and had stopped him from opening it.

“They have been doing a recce of my shop for three days and are not allowing me to open the shop. They are pressuring me,” Kanhaiya Lal alleged, naming his neighbours. “Please take action against these people, help me open my shop and protect me,” Kanhaiya Lal said in his complaint.

The police tried to resolve the problem by calling the tailor, Nazim and other neighbours he had accused of threatening him, along with leaders of both communities. “All parties and community leaders were called to the police station and the matter was resolved,” said senior police officer Hawa Singh Ghumariya. Then Kanhaiya Lal gave in writing that everything was resolved and that he did not need any more police action.

But he was still afraid, his grieving wife Yashoda said. “He did not go to his shop for one week. He went for the first time yesterday,” she said. An Assistant Sub Inspector at Dhan Mandi police station in Udaipur, where the tailor had reported his concerns over the threat calls, has been suspended for alleged negligence, officials said.

The police say those who attacked him were not the people who had threatened him. Kanhaiya Lal was killed in his shop by Ghouse Mohammad and Riaz Akhtari and bragged about it in a video, also threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two were arrested when they were trying to escape on a bike, their faces covered by helmets.

Treating the killing of the tailor as a terror incident, the union home ministry on Wednesday directed the NIA to probe the brutal murder. “The involvement of any organisation and international links will be thoroughly investigated,” the home ministry said in a tweet.

Gehlot also said a preliminary investigation had revealed that the murder was done to spread terror. A case has been registered under stringent provisions of UAPA, he said. The state government which has also constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of senior police officers to probe into the murder has ordered a compensation of ₹ 31 lakh for the family members of the tailor. “We are probing if there was any terror angle involved in the incident,” Praful Kumar, Inspector General of Police, Anti-Terror Squad had said.

Ghouse Mohammad and Riyaz Akhtari had entered Kanhaiya Lal’s shop posing as customers. A video shot by them shows the tailor taking measurements of one of the men, who then slits his throat with a cleaver. Police said they first tried to behead the tailor but couldn’t. In another video, the killers are seen gloating about the murder and issuing a threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they brandish their cleavers.

Curfew was imposed in parts of Udaipur on Tuesday night after stray incidents of violence were reported from some areas, while large gatherings have been banned across Rajasthan to maintain law and order.