Unsuspicious to Neighbours, But Watched ISIS Videos Before Killing: Peep Into Udaipur Killers' Lives

A local court on Thursday sent the two men accused of killing a tailor to 14-day judicial custody for an identification parade, an official said. The accused, Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad, who allegedly murdered Kanhaiya Lal in his shop on Tuesday, were brought in a police van with their faces covered and were produced in the court in the evening amid tight security.

According to a report by the Indian Express, one of the accused, Ghouse, owned a small general store in Raza Colony.

The colony is a part of the larger Khanjipeer locality in Udaipur, a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood, the report says. According to neighbours, Ghouse mostly kept to himself and was “deeply religious”. “He kept to himself. We never heard his name being associated with any sort of violence,” Mohammed Rafique, a resident told IE.

Another neighbour Mohammed Umar told IE that Ghouse was earlier a “collection agent” with an investment agency, and that many people from the locality would make daily recurring deposits with him. But after the company got entangled in allegations of fraud, many lost their money, he said, adding that then Ghouse, along with his father, opened a general store.

The report quotes another neighbour as saying that his father was dismayed by the developments. According to one Shama Khan, Ghouse’s father said his son had neither cared for the family’s honour and neither his old age. They have reportedly left their residence.

Only a few houses away is where Riyaz used to live. The house owner Mohammed Umar told IE that the accused had been living in the two rooms on the ground floor since June 12. A welder by profession, the accused was staying with his wife and two children, said Umar, adding that he had not ‘found anything suspicious’ about him.

Qayyum Baig, a welder who previously worked with Riyaz, stated that the latter had spent the previous two decades in Udaipur.

According to the report, heavy security has been deployed outside both Riyaz and Ghouse’s residence after the incident.

Weapon Used to Kill Welded by Accused: Report

Meanwhile, while investigations are on, a report by India Today quoted sources as saying that the the weapon used in the murder was recovered from a factory, and the arrested accused made these sharp weapons themselves at the SK Engineering Works factory to commit the crime. In the same factory, they also shot a video before and after the incident, the report said.

Since a ‘Pakistani angle’ came to light, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been looking into the matter, the report said, adding that according to sources, the killers watched ISIS videos before committing the crime.

Both accused allegedly communicated with people in Pakistan before and after the murder, it said.

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