On Thursday, July 25, a Supreme Court bench granted bail to Syed Asim Ali, accused of being the conspirator in the brutal murder of Hindu Samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari. As per a Live Law report, the Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih granted the bail to the accused.
The bench, while granting bail, observed that the accused has already been incarcerated for more than four and a half years. Apart from his time in prison, the Court noted that Asim Ali had no criminal antecedents and the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 Act was not invoked against him.
Earlier, in April this year, the Allahabad High Court had denied bail to Syed Asim Ali in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder case. The Court had characterized the case as driven by intense communal animosity, ultimately resulting in the vicious daylight killing of Tiwari.
The Maharashtra ATS had arrested Asim Ali from Nagpur, in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder case on October 21, 2019. He is a hardware shop owner and was reportedly constantly in touch with the other three accused Rashid, Mohsin, and Faizan, who were earlier detained by the UP Police, UP ATS and Gujarat Police.
Kamlesh Tiwari murder
Kamlesh Tiwari, the Hindu Samaj Party leader was murdered in Lucknow on October 18, 2019, when the assailants came to meet him on the pretext of working for his outfit. He was murdered at his home in Naka Hindola area in Lucknow.
Kamlesh Tiwari, a former Hindu Mahasabha leader, was assassinated at his Lucknow office by Ashfaq and Moinuddin from Surat.
Kamlesh Tiwari was arrested by the then Akhilesh Yadav government for his remarks on Prophet Mohammad in 2015. Muslim groups in Deoband, Saharanpur and West Bengal had launched massive riots and protests demanding Tiwari’s death.
Tiwari had remained in jail or over a year after the National Security Act was slapped on him. In September 2016, the Allahabad HC had finally quashed the NSA charges against him and he was released later. The arrest and subsequent charges on Kamlesh Tiwari over remarks against Prophet Muhammad had caused an outrage in the nation, especially among Hindu groups.
