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Udaipur killing: Tailor had refused to open his shop, say locals
Around 2.30 in the afternoon, 47-year-old Kanhaiyya Lal, a green cap on his head, was at his tailoring shop in Udaipur’s Dhan Mandi area, measuring Mohammad Riyaz Akhtari’s chest with a tape.
Around 2.30 in the afternoon, 47-year-old Kanhaiyya Lal, a green cap on his head, was at his tailoring shop in Udaipur’s Dhan Mandi area, measuring Mohammad Riyaz Akhtari’s chest with a tape. As Gaus Mohammed filmed the events that were to follow, Akhtari began hacking Lal’s neck with a knife. Lal’s last words in the video were a repeated “kya hua” (what happened), that tapered off into a scream.
A local resident told HT that Lal was originally from the Salumber village of Udaipur, and lived in Udaipur’s Sector 11. Survived by two children, aged 17 and 19, Lal was married twice, the children from his second wife. For the past two decades, Lal worked as a tailor and had a shop in Udaipur’s walled city area of Hathipol, close to Dhan Mandi.
Neighbours of Lal, said on condition of anonymity, that around two weeks ago Lal shared a clip of now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma where she allegedly used provocative words for the Prophet, on WhatsApp.
“His family members have always said that he was not well versed in the use of the mobile, and the post may have been uploaded by children playing with his phone,” the neighbor said.
Still, it caused consternation among Muslim residents of his locality who made a complaint to the police. An FIR registered against Lal under sections 295(A) and 153(A) said that he had made a provocative post against the Prophet which had hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community.
In a complaint to the Dhanamandi police station on June 15, Lal had complained that a group of five to seven men had been doing a recce of his shop everyday, preventing him from opening it. He alleged that his name and photo were being circulated on social media, and he had been warned that he would be killed if he came to shop.
On June 18, with a protest against Sharma’s comments planned in the area, he was picked up by the police. “He was released the day after, and continuously said that if he had hurt sentiments, he was sorry,” a local said.
Since then however, locals said, Lal was being threatened over the phone, and had informed the police about these threats. For the past ten days, Lal had refused to open his shop in fear, only mustering the courage on the afternoon of June 28, after lunch.
The video of the killing shows Lal in his shop, surrounded by posters of actor Saif Ali Khan, diligently taking Akhtari’s measurements. As he put the measuring tape around Akhtari’s chest, Lal asks, “Thoda sa kam karun kya? (should I reduce it a little bit)?” He clears his table of a cloth, takes a pen and begins to note down the measurements. As he does so, Akhtari, till then playing customer, turns a cold-blooded murderer.
