On July 25, in a significant development, the Supreme Court granted bail to Syed Asim Ali, accused of being a conspirator in the brutal murder of Hindu Samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari. The decision was delivered by a bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih.
While granting bail, the bench highlighted that Syed Asim Ali has already been incarcerated for over four and a half years. The Court took into account that Ali had no prior criminal record, and noted that the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, was not invoked against him.
In April earlier this year, the Allahabad High Court had denied bail to Syed Asim Ali, emphasising the communal nature of the case. The High Court had pointed out that the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari was driven by intense communal animosity, resulting in his vicious daylight killing.
Syed Asim Ali, a hardware shop owner, was arrested by the Maharashtra ATS from Nagpur on October 21, 2019. Ali was reportedly in constant contact with the other three accused—Rashid, Mohsin, and Faizan—who were detained earlier by the UP Police, UP ATS, and Gujarat Police.
Kamlesh Tiwari, the leader of the Hindu Samaj Party, was murdered in Lucknow on October 18, 2019. The assailants, identified as Ashfaq and Moinuddin from Surat, had visited Tiwari under the pretext of working for his outfit, before killing him at his home in the Naka Hindola area of Lucknow.
Kamlesh Tiwari, a former leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, had previously been arrested by the then Akhilesh Yadav government in 2015 for his remarks on Prophet Mohammad. His comments sparked massive riots and protests by Muslim groups in Deoband, Saharanpur, and West Bengal, demanding his death.
Following his arrest, Tiwari was detained for over a year under the National Security Act (NSA). In September 2016, the Allahabad High Court quashed the NSA charges against him, leading to his release. Tiwari’s arrest and subsequent charges had caused significant outrage among Hindu groups across the nation.
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