Two persons who were part of the conspiracy to kill Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal have been arrested, a senior Rajasthan police officer said on Friday.
Udaipur inspector general of police Praful Kumar said the two men were involved in the conspiracy and preparation for the crime carried out by Riyaz Akhtari and Gaus Mohammed, who walked into Kanhaiya Lal’s tailoring shop and murdered him with sharp knives for supporting controversial comments by suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma on Prophet Mohammed.
Riyaz Akhtari and Gaus Mohammed, who filmed the murder and bragged about it, were arrested hours later from Rajsamand, about 150km from Udaipur. Three more men were detained by Rajasthan Police earlier but they have not been booked yet.
The two men arrested on Thursday evening have been identified by the police as Mohsin and Asif.
They have been arrested for abetment and conspiracy, Praful Kumar said soon after taking charge as Udaipur IG on Friday.
His predecessor Hinglaj Dan and the district superintendent of police Manoj Kumar were shifted out late on Thursday night after criticism that the police did not take enough steps when the tailor complained on June 15 that his life was in danger.
Kumar declined to detail the precise role played by Mohsin and Asif. He said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the case with support of the Anti-terrorist Squad and Special Operation Group of Rajasthan police.
As the outrage over the gruesome murder continues to spiral – thousands of people took out a protest rally in Udaipur on Thursday, shouting slogans and demanding the death penalty for two prime accused – the family of a man who had supported Nupur Sharma also renewed requests to the administration to scale up his security.
On Friday, a delegation of the Jain community asked Udaipur collector to order adequate security to the family of the man over fears that he may also be targetted. “In the video, Riaz Akhtari is talking about beheading of persons in sector 11. Since Nitin Jain lives in sector 11, we believe that he was also on target of the radical elements. We requested the collector to take the matter seriously so that incident like Kanhaiya Lal murder is not repeated in Udaipur,” said Yashwant Achaliya, president of Shree Mahaveer Sena, who gave representation to Udaipur collector.
Achaliya said round the clock security has already been provided outside the house of Jain but it should be enhanced.
SHO Savina police station Ravindra Charan said they had deployed two policemen deployed outside his house.
3 held for hate speech in Ajmer
Three people, including a cleric, were arrested for allegedly delivering a hate speech in which they called for violence to avenge the insult to the Prophet. Dargah police station SHO Dalveer Singh identified the three arrested men as Fakar Jamali, a cleric, Riyaz and Tazim. They were arrested on Wednesday night, he said. Ajmer Superintendent of Police Vikas Sharma said the main accused Gohar Chisti is missing. “They (the arrested) were present with Gohar Chisti during the hate speech which was delivered from the Nizam gate of the Ajmer dargah,” SHO Singh said.
