According to sources of the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force sources, their counterparts in Gujarat have found that one of the assailants identified as Ashfaq Hussain had created the account under the name of ‘Rohit Solanki’ and befriended Tiwari.
Tiwari had agreed to meet ‘Solanki’ on October 18, the day he was killed.
Hussain and Moinuddin Pathan have been identified as the main assailants. Their identities were confirmed through the CCTV footage of the hotel they stayed in and also after the police recovered blood-stained clothes and a towel from their room.
Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh had earlier stated that the accused knew Tiwari as they spent around 30 minutes with him on the pretext of gifting him sweets.
Maulana Mohsin Sheikh, Khurshid Ahmed Pathan and Faizan, the three co-accused, have been arrested from Surat by a joint team of the Gujarat Police and the Uttar Pradesh Police.
An Ahmedabad court granted a 72-hour transit remand to them and they are likely to be produced in a Lucknow court on Monday.
Tiwari had in January 2017 formed the Hindu Samaj Party and was known for making controversial remarks.
In 2015, he was arrested and the National Security Act (NSA) was slapped on him after he made some controversial statement about Prophet Muhammad.
This was the fourth murder of a right-wing leader this month in Uttar Pradesh.
On October 8, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chaudhary Yashpal Singh was also gunned down in a similar manner in Deoband. On October 10, BJP leader Kabir Tiwari was shot dead in Basti.
(IANS)
Prasanta Patnaik