A Rajasthan police team on Thursday raided a metal factory in which one of the prime accused used to work to reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to the gruesome murder of tailor Kanhaiyya Lal Teli over a post supporting suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
The police suspect that the sharp weapons used in the murder were manufactured at the factory. It is not clear if the weapons have been recovered.
Preliminary investigations revealed that after hacking Kanhaiyya Lal to death at his shop and recording the act using a mobile phone on Tuesday, accused Mohammed Riyaz Attari and Ghous Mohammed had fled to the S.K. Engineering Factory in the Sapetia village on a motorcycle. They made another video claiming responsibility for the killing and released the two clips on the social media, after which they left for Deogarh in Rajsamand. However, they were intercepted by the police in Bhim.
On Thursday, the investigators went to the factory owned by one Shoeb, where Attari did welding work. His suspected links with a terror module, whose three alleged members were arrested by the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh police in March with 12 kg of explosives in Rajasthan's Nimbahera, are also being probed.
Attari belongs to Asind in Bhilawara and lived on rent in the Khanjipeer area of Udaipur with his wife and two children in a rented accommodation. The house owner, Mohammed Umar, told the police that the accused had shifted to the room on June 12. The family earlier lived in another house in the same locality. A day before the incident, the family left the place.
Went to Karachi in 2014
The second accused, Ghous, is from Bhim and also lived in a rented room with his family in Khanjipeer. The police have found that in 2014 he had gone to Karachi in Pakistan and that he was allegedly affiliated to the Pakistan-based outfit Dawat-e-Islami. It is alleged that on June 17, he had posted a video message in various WhatsApp groups declaring his intension to target people. However, the police did not come to know about it.
Around 5.30 p.m., the police produced the two accused in a sessions court in Udaipur. The police sought their judicial custody as they had to conduct an identification parade. The court remanded them in 14-day judicial custody and sent them to the Udaipur Central Jail. Local lawyers refused to appear for the accused, who had to be taken away by the rear entrance because of protests.
As the case has now been taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the two accused will also be produced before a special court in Jaipur, where the agency will seek their custody to determine the identities of others involved in the conspiracy behind Kanhaiyya Lal's murder. Their mobile phones are being sent for forensic examination and to secure the digital data. Given that Kanhaiyya Lal had complained to the police about the threats he had received, efforts are being made to identify those involved.
Protection sought
It is learnt that at least three persons from Udaipur — including Kanhaiya Lal and one Nitin Jain from Sector 11 — had shared posts favouring Ms. Sharma on the social media. Nitin, who runs a tyre shop, has gone underground as he also received threats to his life. His relatives have sought police protection. A case was registered against him for his post at the Savina police station. Subsequently, several persons came looking for him at his shop. "We suspect that they were conducting a reconnaissance," said a relative.
Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met the family members of Kanhaiyya Lal and assured them of all possible assistance. He informed them that two policemen have been suspended for negligence and that action might be taken against others as well on the same ground. The relatives and members of the Sahu community demanded security for the family.
The Chief Minister then held a meeting with senior officials to review the law and order arrangements. The mobile phone internet service remained suspended and prohibitory orders were still in place. Heavy security deployments were made in different parts of the city in view of the Jagannath Yatra in Udaipur on Friday.
Meanwhile, thousands of Sarva Hindu Samaj supporters organised a procession from Town Hall till the Udaipur Collectorate office demanding justice for Kanhaiyya Lal. Some protesters hurled stones at a shrine near the Delhi Gate, at which the police intervened and brought the situation under control.
