Three held from Surat for murder of UP Hindutva leader

Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has nabbed three persons from Surat in connection with the killing of a former Hindu Mahasabha leader in Lucknow, officials said on Saturday.

Kamlesh Tiwari (45), leader of the lesser-known Hindu Samaj Party (HSP) who was earlier associated with a faction of the Hindu Mahasabha, was killed at his home in Khurshed Bagh under the Naka Hindola area in the Uttar Pradesh capital on Friday.

ATS sleuths nabbed Mohsin Sheikh, Faizan and Rashid Ahmed from Surat on Friday night on the basis of CCTV footage from a shop from where they had brought sweets that were found at the scene of the crime, they said.

The trio were brought to Ahmedabad and arrested. They will be handed over to the Uttar Pradesh Police, they added.

Two persons had visited Tiwari with a box of sweets before killing him at his residence in Khurshed Bagh under the Naka Hindola police station in Lucknow, police had said.

Uttar Pradesh police have already taken Mohammed Mufti Naeem Kazmi and Imam Maulana Anwarul Haq into their custody on the basis of an FIR lodged by wife of the deceased.

As per the FIR, Kazmi and Haq had in 2016 announced a reward of Rs 1.5 crore on Tiwari's head for his alleged remarks on Prophet Mohammad.

Kazmi and Haq, both residents of Bijnor district in the northern state, have been booked for murder.

An outfit, Al-Hind Brigade, had claimed the responsibility for the the killing, which it said was a fallout of Tiwari's bid to "defame Islam and Muslims".