Skip to main content

Kamlesh Tiwari murder: Why is needle of suspicion 'always' pointed to Muslims?

Kamlesh Tiwari
By Masood Peshimam*
It has become so easy to blame Muslims for any wrong in the country. Attuned to this scenario the needle of suspicion was immediately turned to Muslims for the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, who was an appellant on behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha in the Ayodhya title suit. He was shot and stabbed to death at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
Without studying and analyzing the situation any further the Muslim card was played for his ghastly murder without any loss of time. A section of mainstream media chose to highlight the earlier incident of an alleged order issued by the Muslim clerics of Bijnor, of call for a bounty of Rs 1.5 crore for his alleged blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad. The murder mystery was solved without any loss of time.
A joint team of Uttar Pradesh police and Gujrat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) claimed it had solved the case by blowing the lid off a radicalized Islamist group in Surat, who engineered what might be the first blasphemy killing. The speed at which the murder mystery was solved is a big question.
Najeeb's mother
Shakil Rashid, in an editorial in "Urdu Times", expressing surprise over the fast investigation said that the police which failed to search Jawaharlal Nehru University student Najeeb for two years nabbed the accused without batting an eyelid. Another question has been raised as to how the accused went to Surat from Lucknow in such a short span of time without taking a flight.
Meanwhile, Kamlesh Tiwari's mother Kusum Tiwari held a BJP leader responsible for the murder, while the right-wing leader's son demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe. Kusum Tiwari said, "Police must interrogate the BJP leader, a mafia don with over 100 cases registered against him. He got my son killed over a dispute regarding the construction of a temple."
It is difficult to understood as to why the statement of the family members of the victim is not taken into consideration to amplify the scope of the investigation. The expansion of the scope of the investigation is all the more needed to make skeletons tumble.
Kusum Tiwari
This is important also because one cannot hope to depend on just one factor while investigating the brutal murder. An impartial investigation would leave no chance to grievances of prejudice and bias operating at various levels of decision making in India.
---
*Advocate based in Kalyan, Maharashtra

Comments

TRENDING

Civil society at a crossroads: Service delivery vs. rights in the fight for social change

Counterview News   In the latest episode of the podcast Unmute , hosts Gagan Sethi and Minar Pimple convened a profound conversation with two veteran development practitioners to dissect a persistent tension within civil society: the perceived divide between service delivery and the struggle for rights. The episode, titled "Beyond Service Delivery: Civil Society, Rights, and the Politics of Social Change," featured Apoorva Oza , a development practitioner with decades of experience in rural development and institution-building, and Professor Dipa Sinha , a development economist known for her work on food, nutrition, gender, and social policy.

Grain vs. gasoline: How the global biofuel boom threatens India’s food and water security

By Rajiv Shah  A new report published by the international research and advocacy organization GRAIN has warned that the global resurgence of biofuels is triggering a dangerous dynamic of “more fuel, less food, more land grabs.” Driven by intersecting energy security concerns, geopolitical tensions, and aggressive decarbonization mandates, the expanding agrofuel industry is increasingly pitting corporate energy interests against global food security and indigenous land rights. 

Sikkim governor row: ALIFA asks centre to explain hurried appointment in Ankita Bhandari case

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) on Saturday expressed “immense pain and outrage” that even after four years and a national uproar, justice has not been fully delivered in the Ankita Bhandari murder case and that a ruling party politician facing allegations has been “gifted a high-ranking constitutional office.” In a statement, ALIFA extended “unflinching solidarity” to Ankita’s parents, who it said are “fighting for justice on the streets of Delhi,” and demanded that pending the CBI inquiry and judicial decision, the appointment of BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam as Sikkim’s Governor be subject to “immediate presidential review.”