NIA calls Kanhaiya Lal killing 'terror-gang' act, charges 11

JAIPUR/ NEW DELHI: The duo seen on camera beheading Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal on June 28 and two absconding Pakistanis were among 11 suspects named in the chargesheet filed on Thursday by the NIA, which termed the murder a "terror" act inspired by "incriminating" audio, video and other messages circulated within and from outside the country.
Kanhaiya, 48, was in his shop in Udaipur when Gaus Mohammad and Mohammad Riyaz walked in masquerading as customers and beheaded him with a cleaver. The assailants claimed in a video released hours before their arrest that they killed him for a social media post supporting suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, accused of remarks denigrating the Prophet. "Investigations have revealed that the accused, operating as a terror-gang module, conspired to take revenge," the NIA said.
The chargesheet filed in a special NIA court in Jaipur under various sections of the IPC, UAPA and the Arms Act states that the assailants circulated the video of the beheading on social media with the intention of "promoting enmity on religious grounds and to create panic and terror amongst the masses across the country".The assailants have been linked to Karachi-based Salman and Abu Ibrahim, both of whom find mention in the chargesheet. Besides the killers, those in custody are Mohsin Khan, Asif Hussain, Mohammad Mohsin, Vasim Ali, Farhad Mohammad Sheikh, Mohammed Javed and Muslim Khan. According to the police probe, the suspects had helped carry out a recce of the area where the victim's shop was located and provided them resources.
The case was first registered at Dhanmandi police station. The NIA filed a separate case on June 29.
Of the two who beheaded Kanhaiya, Riyaz is ideologically the "more radicalised one", investigators said. Before inviting infamy, Gaus lived with his wife and two children in a two-storey house with a small grocery shop of their own on the ground floor in the Khanjipeer. Riyaz lived in the locality as a tenant, but would change houses frequently.