Murder of Hindutva ‘hawk’ by assailants who brought him sweets baffle Lucknow police

The killing of controversial “Hindutva Hawk’ and founder of the two years old Hindu Samaj Party, Kamlesh Tiwari, by people who brought him sweets baffle Lucknow police

Murder of Hindutva ‘hawk’ by assailants who brought him sweets baffle Lucknow police
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Biswajeet Banerjee

Kamlesh Tiwari was a political lightweight, who was arrested by UP Police on more than one occasion, and a Hindutva ‘hawk’. His activities are said to have included grabbing property. But his sensational murder on the first floor of his own house on Friday has baffled the police.

CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts suggest that the assailants were known to Tiwari. They had apparently brought sweets for him and spent more than half an hour in his first floor office. Ironically, the personal police bodyguard given to Tiwari was having a nap on the ground floor, where the family lived.

Neither the security guard nor family members claim to have heard any sound of struggle or scuffle. Indeed, according to some accounts the assailants apparently planned to stay longer as Tiwari sent out a domestic help of his to get some snacks for the guests.

“The gun shot must have alerted residents. And when Kamlesh was being stabbed he would have offered some resistance. Then too he must have made some noise. How come no one heard anything,” asks a senior police official.

Kiran, Kamlesh’s wife told police that she was resting in another room when the assailants reached there around 12.30 pm. “After some time I realised that there was no activity in Kamlesh’s office and I went there to see what was wrong, only to find him lying in a pool of blood,” she said.

Police argue that this means she knew what Kamlesh was talking about or might even have heard the sound. How come, she did not hear a gunshot or the screams during the scuffle, is what the investigators are keen to find out.

As per reports, Kamlesh Tiwari was sitting in his residence-cum-office when two persons wearing saffron kurtas and carrying a sweet box visited him in the afternoon. After a brief tête-à-tête, Tiwari asked his aide Saurashtra Singh to serve tea to the guests. Later, the visitors paid Singh some money to bring pan masala.

On his return to the office, Singh found Tiwari and the guests absent. He told the police that he first assumed the visitors had left but then spotted bloodstains on the floor and found Tiwari lying in a corner of the office. On a closer look, he found injuries around Tiwari’s throat, chest, and face. The throat had apparently been slit with a sharp-edged weapon and he had been shot in the head.


At that time, Tiwari’s wife was resting in another room while his driver Mohit was busy somewhere else.

Tiwari was provided security cover but his gunner was on leave. The only constable in Tiwari’s duty was resting in one of the rooms of the house.

Investigators suspect that one of the assailants gagged Tiwari and slit his throat in one go. The multiple injuries on his face and body were probably caused as Tiwari struggled to defend himself.

Sources said the assailants seemed to be contract killers. The surveillance cell is yet to trace details of the phone number from which Tiwari had apparently received a call from the assailants before they arrived. Investigators believe the phone number will provide vital clues to crack the murder.

The police are also probing the case on the rivalry angle. Kamlesh had a dominating personality and it is possible that his murder conspiracy was orchestrated by some of his rivals in political circles or by those whose interests he had harmed in the past.

Old-timers in the police said that apparently the assailants meticulously planned the attack. Though police are claiming that Kamlesh was attacked on some personal enmity which he had with several people in the city and also outside, the killers usually prefer to open fire and that too when their target is on the way. In this case, they reached the office of Kamlesh, had talks with him and later attacked him soon after his helper Saurashtra left the room to buy paan masala. This indicates that the miscreants had a plan and they executed it with a cool mind and did not act in haste.

The cut wounds indicate their professional preciseness.” A senior official said the modus operandi was different from those in other murder cases reported in the recent past. “In the past incidents, the victims were shot at by contract shooters. But in Kamlesh Tiwari murder case, the miscreants chose to slit his throat. The wound on Kamlesh’s throat was deep as the trachea was also cut,” the official pointed out.


However, Kamlesh Tiwari’s wife Kiran Tiwari accused Muslim cleric Mohammed Mufti Naeem Qasmi and Maulana Anwarul Haq (both of Bijnaur) of having orchestrated the murder conspiracy. In a complaint given to the police, Kiran stated that both the clerics had issued fatwas against Kamlesh in the year 2016 and announced a cash reward of Rs 1.5 crore on Kamlesh’s head.

Kamlesh Tiwari faced NSA in 2016 but the High Court had absolved him of the charges. He had also declared that he will construct a temple of Godse in Sitapur drawing protest from all quarters.

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