After the union home ministry handed over the Kanhaiya Lal murder case in Udaipur to the National Investigation Agency, the agency has filed a case against the culprits under several sections of the IPC and UAPA.
The Indian Penal Code sections invoked by the NIA are 452 (House-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 302 (murder), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
Similarly, the sections of stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 attached to the case by the NIA are the sections 16 (terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), 20 (member of terrorist gang or organisation). With the inclusion of these sections, the NIA has made it clear that they are considering the case as an act of terrorism.
NIA Registers a Case in the Incident of Brutal Murder of Shri Kanhaiya Lal Teli in Udaipur, Rajasthan pic.twitter.com/YtI48NHSJy
— NIA India (@NIA_India) June 29, 2022
The NIA says that the case has been filed against the accused who have conspired, planned and committed the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal Teli on 28th June in Udaipur in Rajasthan.
The agency also informed that the case was initially registered as FIR no 81/2022 at Dhanmandi police station in Udaipur by local police. Now, the NIA has re-registered the case RC-27/2022/NIA/DLI today. NIA states that the two accused, who have been arrested by the police, had inflicted multiple injuries to the victim with sharp weapons. They had also circulated a video of the criminal at in social media claiming responsibility for the murder in order to trigger panic and strike terror among the masses across the country, the agency said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the union home ministry had informed that the case has been handed over to NIA. The ministry had said that the the involvement of any organisation and international links in the murder case will be thoroughly investigated.
Murder of Kanhaiya Lal
On June 28, Hindu man named Kanhaiya Lal was brutally murdered in Udaipur, Rajasthan, over an alleged post in favour of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The post was allegedly made by accident from Kanhaiya Lal’s phone by his 8-years-old son while playing a video game. Earlier Kanhaiya Lal was arrested for making the post after his neighbour Nazim filed a complaint about the same.
After getting released on bail, Kanhaiya Lal started to receive threats. He was threatened not to open his tailoring shop. Kanhaiya Lal had approached Police for legal action against those who were threatening him and requested Police protection so that he could open the shop.
However, the police did nothing to restrain those who were threatening him, and didn’t provide security to Kanhaiya. The police had called them and made them sign a compromise agreement. Kanhaiya Lal then submitted another application on the same day that he did not want legal action following the compromise. Scared for his life, Kanhaiya Lal kept his shop shut for six days. On the 7th day, when he opened his shop, he was brutally murdered by two Islamists identified as Mohammed Riyaz Akhtar and Mohammed Gos. Notably, Kanhaiya Lal’s photograph, address and other information were distributed by Nazim and others. They had urged their community members to kill Kanhaiya Lal if they see him the open or he opened his shop.
