Kanhaiya Lal murder case: 3 accused sent to judicial custody till 1 August

Riaz Akhtari, also known as Riyaz Attari, Ghouse Mohammad and Farhad Mohammad Sheikh were under NIA custody, and were produced in the court by a team of the anti-terror probe agency amid tight security.

“The court ordered to send them to judicial custody till August 1,” special public prosecutor T P Sharma said, adding the accused were being shifted to a high-security jail in Ajmer.

The NIA has arrested a total of seven people so far over the gruesome murder four of whom — Mohsin, Asif, Mohammad Mohsin and Wasim Ali — are already under judicial custody till August 1.

Kanhaiya Lal, the 48-year-old tailor, was killed by cleaver-wielding men — Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad — at his shop on June 28 in Udaipur’s Dhan Mandi police station area over a controversial post on social media.

The two had posted a grisly video of the crime online. Both of them were nabbed in Rajsamand within hours of committing the crime. The rest five were arrested subsequently.

Kanhaiya Lal (48) was killed with a cleaver inside his tailoring shop on June 28.

The gruesome attack by Riaz Akhtari, also referred to as Riyaz Attari, on the tailor was recorded on a phone by his accomplice Ghouse Mohammad, and the video was posted online.

They said in a different video later that they hacked Lal to death to avenge an alleged insult to Islam. They were arrested within hours of the killing.

Besides the two, against whom the evidence is their self-shot video, security agencies nabbed two more — identified Mohsin and Asif — who are alleged to be a part of the conspiracy to spread terror amongst the public at large.

Two more persons — Mohammed Mohsin and Wasim — were arrested subsequently for allegedly being part of the criminal conspiracy and helping the two main accused in carrying out a recce of the tailor’s shop.

A seventh accused, named Farhad Mohammad Sheikh, was the last man to be arrested so far in the case. The probe agencies claimed they have found several Pakistani numbers on the accused’s WhatsApp accounts and said that one of the accused was part of some secret groups ostensibly meant for objectionable activities.

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