The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against 11 people, including two Pakistani nationals, in connection with the murder of a tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur who was killed on June 28 by two men who also released a Murder clip video.
Kanhaiya Lal was targeted by suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma for sharing a comment on the Prophet. The two attackers, identified as Mohd Riaz Attari and Mohd Ghaus, were arrested the same day.
“Today, we have filed a charge sheet against 11 persons, identified as Salman and Abu Ibrahim, both of whom are based in Karachi, and others who are residents of Udaipur – Mohd Riaz Attari, Mohd Ghaus, Mohsin Khan, Asif Hussain, Mohd Mohsin, Wasim Ali, Farhad Mohd Shaikh, Mohd Javed, Muslim Khan – before the special NIA court in Jaipur in a case related to the murder of Kanhaiya Lal by two assailants on June 28 this year. The assailants circulated the video of the murder on social media to create panic and panic among the public across the country,” said an NIA spokesperson.
“Investigation has revealed that the accused persons, working as a terrorist gang module, hatched a conspiracy to take revenge. The accused were fanatics and took inspiration from objectionable audios/videos/messages being circulated within and outside India. The accused arranged the deadly knives/weapons and killed Kanhaiya in response to his Facebook post and assaulted a co-worker in his shop in broad daylight. He videotaped the murder, released it and made it viral. He also shot another threatening video with the intention of spreading terror among the people of India,” the spokesperson said.
A national newspaper reported on 1 July that the NIA investigation had found that the murder was “carefully planned” and “instigated” by a man identified in Pakistan as “Salman Bhai”, who had The accused had told Mohammed Ghaus that he “must” “do something spectacular” in response to the comment on the Prophet as “a peaceful protest will not yield any results”.
Sources had said that Ghose had gone to Pakistan in December 2014 to participate in a 45-day program at the invitation of Dawat-e-Islami, a “Pakistan-based radical Islamic organisation”. He said that after his return in January 2015, he joined some WhatsApp groups and was in touch with “Salman Bhai” and another person identified as Abu Ibrahim in Pakistan.