UP to seek fast-track trial of Kamlesh Tiwari’s killers

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath Wednesday asked officials to seek trial by a fast-track court of the main suspects in the murder of Hindutva outfit leader Kamlesh Tiwari, found in a pool of blood last week at his home here.

Ashfaq Sheikh (34) and Moinuddin Pathan (27), the two men who allegedly killed him, were arrested by the Gujarat anti-terror squad (ATS) on Tuesday evening.

The victim’s body bore 15 stab or cut wounds and a gunshot injury, according to a post-mortem report.

Adityanath Wednesday announced immediate financial help of `15 lakh to Tiwari’s wife and sanctioned a house for the family in Sitapur district’s tehsil Mehmoodabad, an official said.

Expressing satisfaction over the arrest of the two men, Tiwari’s family called for capital punishment. “I am very happy with the arrest of the killers. Now, they should be hanged,” victim’sthe  mother, Kusum Tiwari, told reporters.

Adityanath directed officials that the main accu-sed should be tried in a fast-track court, a UP government statement said.

Tiwari, 45, was found murdered at his home in Naka Hindola area of Lucknow last Friday.

He was shot once in the face and the bullet was embedded below his chin.

According to experts, it appears that the assailants first fired at Tiwari. They apparently tried to fire a second bullet but it got stuck in the pistol.

Tiwari was then repeatedly stabbed with a knife and another pointed object, the post-mortem report indicated.

There were two knife wounds on the right side of the victim’s chest, seven wounds caused by some pointed object on its left side, a cut on the throat 6 cm below the chin, a deep wound mark on the neck, two wound marks on the left shoulder, a wound mark on the back and another on the right shoulder.

The police has already recovered the pistol and the knife allegedly used by the two men arrested Tuesday by the Gujarat ATS near Shamlaji on the state’s border with Rajasthan.

Preliminary interrogation revealed that they committed the crime “in retribution to the purported statements by Tiwari”, an ATS release said in Ahmedabad.

Sheikh, a resident of the Limbayat area in Surat, used to work as a medical representative. Pathan, a resident of Umarwada, was employed as a food delivery boy.