Main accused in Kamlesh Tiwari's murder nabbed from Gujarat border

Two main accused, who were the ones seen wearing saffron clothes in the CCTV footage following the killing of Kamlesh Tiwari, have been nabbed by Gujarat ATS. A team led by DIG Himanshu Shukla and ACP BP Rojiya, ACP BH Chavda of Gujarat ATS have arrested the main accused of the Hindu Samaj Party leader. Names of the accused are Ashfaqhussain Jakirhussain Shaikh (34) and Moinuddin Khurshid Pathan (27). The two were the ones who had allegedly carried out the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari. 

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Arrested near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border

The duo was arrested from near Shamlaji which falls near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border. Sources have also said that they had once also fled to Nepal to cover their tracks. However, they always had a plan to return to Surat from Nepal. Just till Sunday, they had reached Shahjahanpur and then were apprehended on Tuesday from Shamlaji. Officials continue to maintain that these accused have no links to organizations and that this was, in fact, a very localized conspiracy which is why they expected a slip up from the accused. "These are not professional killers and they don't have much experience as well. We expected them to return to Gujarat and that is why we had been aggressively trying to locate them. As soon as we found out that they are near Gujarat border, all our teams focussed on apprehending them," said Himanshu Shukla, DIG Gujarat ATS. 

Now the accused will be handed over to UP police who will then carry out further interrogation of them for determining what the exact conspiracy had been. In the primary investigation and interrogation of Ashfaq and Moinuddin as well, it was found out that they were planning on killing Tiwari ever since his communal remarks had come to light in 2015. They had been aggressively planning for the past few months since Rashid (another accused arrested from Surat) who is considered the mastermind of the operation returned from Dubai where he used to work. 

Ashfaq and Moinuddin were working as a pharmaceutical representative and food delivery person respectively. They had also approached several family members and other acquaintances for financial backing - pretending that they were down on their luck and needed financial help.

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