The Gujarat Police have arrested a 27-year-old Maulvi named Sohail Abu Bakar Timol from Surat on May 4 2024, on charges of conspiring to commit murder. Sohail is accused of plotting the assassination of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma, party MLA from Hyderabad’s Goshamahal T Raja Singh, Sudarshan News editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke, and Sanatan Sangh national chairman and social media activist Updesh Rana. The Maulvi allegedly considered them ‘gustakh’ (blasphemers) and was in contact with supervisors in Pakistan and Nepal to execute his nefarious plans.
Gujarat’s Home Minister, Harsh Sanghavi, slammed Congress’s intervention, affirming his commitment to ensuring that the Maulana does not evade justice saying that, “Yesterday, Gujarat Police made a significant arrest, apprehending a Maulana a suspected of being sponsored by Pakistan for allegedly conspiring to assassinate Nupur Sharma and other Hindu leaders. Shockingly, today, the Congress party visited the police station with a lawyer, ostensibly to provide legal support to the accused Maulana. This move has drawn widespread criticism, with many expressing disbelief at Congress’s actions and accusing the party of siding with terrorists.
Yesterday Gujarat Police arrested a Pakistani sponsored Maulana for conspiring the assassination plan of Nupur Sharma & other Hindu leaders and today Congress reached police station with a lawyer to save him. Can you believe it…
Everyday Congress proves that they're with… pic.twitter.com/KY4cbVMrBR— Mr Sinha (@Mrsinha) May 5, 2024
According to the Gujarat Police, their teams were on high alert in anticipation of potential security threats during the 2024 Lok Sabha Election. During this heightened state of vigilance, the Surat Crime Branch observed suspicious activities of a cleric named Mohammad Sohail, also known as Sohail Abu Bakar Timol. Originally hailing from Nandurbar, Maharashtra, Sohail worked as a Hafiz in a madrasa in Surat, imparting religious education to Muslim students. Additionally, he served as a manager in a thread factory in Diamond Nagar, Surat.
Investigations revealed that Sohail had been in contact with handlers in Pakistan and Nepal for over a year and a half, communicating with them via a SIM card issued from Laos. These foreign handlers, identified as Shahzad in Nepal, instructed Sohail to target specific individuals whom they deemed as blasphemers against the Islamic Prophet. The cleric was allegedly promised a substantial sum of Rs 1 crore in exchange for carrying out these killings.
Sohail also reportedly established a WhatsApp group comprising individuals sharing his radical ideology from Indonesia to Kazakhstan. The group discussions included offensive remarks about Hinduism, along with doctored images and incitements to violence against specific targets. Moreover, the Maulvi was in the process of ordering arms through his foreign contacts, intending to carry out his deadly plot.
Surat Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot emphasised that Sohail’s phone contained evidence indicating his extremist inclinations. It is suspected that Sohail was also involved in issuing death threats to Surat resident Updesh Rana in the preceding month. The accused utilised apps that were difficult to trace, posting pictures and videos of their intended targets while collectively plotting their heinous crimes.
Gujarat Minister Harsh Sanghavi condemned the alleged plot, attributing it to the Congress Party’s supposed tolerance of such individuals. He accused the opposition party of indirectly supporting radical clerics and urged them to refrain from doing so.
Further interrogation of Sohail revealed his association with individuals identified as Dogar and Shehnaz, who contacted him through social media platforms with phone numbers from Pakistan and Nepal. These individuals purportedly incited Sohail by alleging disrespect towards the Prophet Muhammad by Hindu organisations in India, urging him to take action against them.
Sohail’s modus operandi included obtaining an international SIM card from Laos to maintain anonymity, as well as activating a business number on social media to issue threats to his targets. He utilised chat apps to disseminate hate speech against Hinduism and to orchestrate the murder of Updesh Rana, similar to the killing of Kamlesh Tiwari. Additionally, Sohail was in contact with individuals from various countries, including Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan, as evidenced by WhatsApp numbers with international codes.
The Maulvi has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those related to incitement of religious hatred, forgery, and criminal conspiracy, along with provisions of the Information Technology Act.
