Udaipur murder accused shifted to Ajmer's high-security prison late Thursday night

The Rajasthan police late on Thursday night shifted the two murder accused Riaz Attari and Gaus Mohammed to a high-security prison in Ajmer from Udaipur.

The police after obtaining a 14 -day remand from a court in Udaipur, sent the two accused to judicial custody. But in a late-night decision, the two accused were shifted to Ajmer under high security. The Ajmer Central jail has a very secure system to keep dreaded criminals there and a number of terrorists were also sent there in the past. This was done as there were threats to the lives of the two accused in Udaipur.

Meanwhile, it is learned that after preliminary investigations by the NIA, it was found that the two accused were in touch with one or more persons in Kanpur and they had planned to go to Kanpur from Udaipur after committing the crime.

The NIA team is in Kanpur to investigate the city’s links with the murders. The focus of the investigation would be on Dawat-E-Islamic, an organistion that has some base in Kanpur, and during the preliminary investigation in Udaipur by the NIA, the two accused gave some hints about their links with Dawat-E-Islamic.

As the two accused Riaz Attari and Gaus Mohammed were shifted to Ajmer prison, the NIA team led by an inspector general level officer would also go to Ajmer from Udaipur. The NIA team on Thursday had gone to Asind, the town in Bhilwara district to know about Riaz's background. Riaz comes from a very large family and he shifted from Asind to Udaipur 20 years ago to become a welder.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged the NIA to complete its investigations in the shortest time possible to enable the police charge sheet and start the trial proceedings against the two accused. Gehlot said that the NIA investigation should be time-bound and the NIA should take the case to the fast court. The charge sheet should be filed as soon as possible so that the trial could begin and the accused be punished.

Gehlot admitted that the incident in Udaipur shocked the country, but the police played a key role in nabbing the murderers and any delay in their arrests would have caused complications.

“The NIA should get the investigation completed as the entire nation is keen that thee two murderers should be punished,” said Gehlot.

Gehlot said that the Udaipur police have registered a case under sections 16,18 and 20 of the Act 1967 and section 302 of the Indian Penal code and sections 153 A,153B295A 452, and 35.

The Gehlot government on late Thursday night, immediately after the visit of the Chief Minister to Udaipur to console the family of the murder victim Kanhaiya Lal Darji, ordered the transfer of Udaipur range inspector general Hinglaj Dan and police superintendent Manoj Choudhry. Hinglaj Dan was replaced by Prafulla Kumar, while Vikas Sharma was made the superintendent of police . The state government also transferred 32 other police officers.

According to NIA sources, it is unlikely that the two accused had any connection with any Pakistan-based terror organisation. The NIA investigating team felt that the Udaipur incident was confined to the local jihadis, who are strong fundamentalists and were guided by clergies. The Rajasthan police, on the very day the crime was committed, came out with a statement that the two accused had connections with some Pakistani terror organisation. The DGP ML Lather even claimed that one of the accused Riaz Attari was trained in Pakistan in 2004, but the preliminary investigation by the NIA revealed that they had no Pakistani links.

But the NIA during its preliminary investigation found that the two murderers wanted to strike terror among the masses across the country through the gruesome act. They were very hurt by the statement issued by Nupur Sharma on Prophet Muhammed and were further hurt by the message of Kahaiya Lal in the social media supporting Nupur Sharma’s statement.

They had posted videos online claiming responsibility for the murder and also issued threats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The NIA would adopt the legal process to take the two accused from Ajmer prison to Jaipur where it would produce them before a special NIA court.