Kamlesh Tiwari

Kamlesh Tiwari (murdered 18 October 2019)[3] was an Indian right-wing politician who founded the Hindu Samaj Party in 2017.[4] He was shot, stabbed, and had his throat slit by assailants on 18 October 2019 at his house in Lucknow.[5]

Kamlesh Tiwari
BornEarly 1970s
Para Kothba, Sitapur, India
Died18 October 2019 (2019-10-19)
Lucknow
Cause of deathShooting and throat slashing
Political partyHindu Samaj Party
Spouse(s)Kiran Tiwari[1]
Children3 sons[2]

Azam Khan, a politician from the Samajwadi Party, responded to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley's statements in support of decriminalization of homosexuality, with homophobic comments, labelling members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 'homosexuals.' Tiwari retaliated with comments about Prophet Muhammad,[6] which were considered derogatory by thousands of Indian Muslims[7][8] who protested and demanded death penalty and beheading for Tiwari.[9][10]

Tiwari was arrested, charged under the National Security Act,[11] and jailed for a few months by the Uttar Pradesh Police,[6] before his murder. Two men have confessed to the murder.[5][12][13]

Early life and career

Kamlesh was born in Para Kothba village of UP’s Sitapur district in the early 1970s, His family shifted to the nearby town of Mahmoodabad in 1980 after his father got a job as a priest at the local Ram-Janki temple. The family came to stay at the accommodation provided within the shrine. Kamlesh grew up there during the heyday of the ram temple movement in Ayodhya.[14]

Tiwari got attracted to Hindutva in the 1990s, in his teens he organized a groups of 'Young Hindutva Warriors' who marched from Lucknow to Ayodhya and participated in the demolition of the Mosque at the disputed religious site. He later joined the Bajrang Dal, and was said to admire leaders such as Ashok Singhal, Lal Krishna Advani, Sadhvi Rithambara and Uma Bharati.[15]

He claimed himself to be the working president of Hindu Mahasabha,[9] and also founded the Hindu Samaj Party in 2017.[5] Kamlesh had contested the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election from Lucknow in 2012[16][17] and from Faizabad in 2019 Indian general election but lost.[18]

Controversy

On 2 December 2015, in response to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley's statements in support of decriminalization of homosexuality, in India, Azam Khan, a politician of the Samajwadi Party, reportedly made homophobic remarks, labelling RSS members homosexuals because they don't marry.[9][19][20] The next day, Kamlesh Tiwari retaliated to Azam Khan's statement and called Muhammad the first homosexual in the world.[9][10]

About one lakh (hundred thousand) Muslims protested in Muzaffarnagar and demanded death penalty for Tiwari,[9][21][22] (Death Penalty is only reserved in India for the 'rarest of rare' crimes,)[23] with some demanding that he be 'beheaded' for 'insulting' Muhammad.[10] Tiwari was arrested in Lucknow on 3 December 2015 by Uttar Pradesh Police.[6][10] Protest rallies against his statement were held by several Islamic groups in other parts of India, most of them demanding a death penalty.[24] He spent one year in Jail.

Tiwari was promptly arrested for his remarks in early December 2015, and charged under the National Security Act by the Samajwadi Party-led state government in Uttar Pradesh.[11] He spent several months in jail for his comment, and was charged under Indian Penal Code sections 153-A (promoting enmity between groups on the grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).[25][26]

The protests demanding capital punishment for Tiwari triggered counter-protests by Hindu groups who accused Muslim groups of demanding enforcement of Islamic law of blasphemy in India.[10] His detention under National Security Act was revoked by Allahabad High Court on September 30, 2016.[27][16]

Murder

On 18 October 2019, Tiwari was murdered by two assailants, Farid-ud-din Shaikh and Ashfak Shaikh, in his office-cum-residence at Lucknow. The assailants came dressed in saffron kurtas to give him a sweets box with an address of a sweet shop in Surat city in Gujarat.[28][29][12] Tiwari's aide Saurashtrajeet Singh was sent to bring cigarettes for them and when he returned he found Tiwari lying with his throat slit. According to police officials, the assailants kept a revolver and knife inside the sweets box. During the attack, one assailant slit his throat while another fired at him.[29] He was declared dead during treatment at a hospital's trauma centre.[18]

According to the post-mortem report, he was stabbed 15 times.[30]

Investigation

Two ISIS suspects previously detained by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad, had accepted that they wanted to kill Kamlesh Tiwari in 2017.[31][32] Al-Hind Brigade, a lesser known group, claimed the responsibility of death of Tiwari.[33][34] By 19 October 2019, six accused involved in the murder of Tiwari, including Khurshid Ahmed Pathan, Faizan Pathan and Maulana Mohsin Sheikh were detained by the Surat Police, Gujarat ATS and Uttar Pradesh Police.[35][29] The police used CCTV footage of a sweet mart in Surat whose address was found on the sweets box.[29]

According to the police, the pistol used in the murder was bought in Surat and the murder was planned in Dubai.[36] They also confirmed that Tiwari’s comment on Muhammad was the motive for his murder.[37][38]

    References
    1. https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article29897331.ece
    2. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/my-father-fought-for-hindus-whole-life-want-nia-to-probe-6081043/
    3. "Hindu Group Leader Kamlesh Tiwari Shot Dead In Lucknow". NDTV.com. Retrieved Oct 20, 2019.
    4. "लखनऊ में हिंदू समाज पार्टी के नेता कमलेश तिवारी की गला रेतकर हत्या". Aaj Tak (in Hindi). Retrieved 2019-10-18.
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