Rajasthan High Court grants bail to accused in Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal murder case

Rajasthan High Court grants bail to accused in Udaipur murder case due to lack of evidence, sparking controversy.

The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday (September 5, 2024) granted bail to Mohammed Javed, one of the accused in the sensational murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur in 2022, on the ground of lack of clarity about his location when he was alleged to have conducted reconnaissance for the two persons who are facing charges of beheading Mr. Lal.

A Division Bench of the high court ordered the release of Mr. Javed on furnishing the bail bond of ₹2 lakh and two sureties of ₹1 lakh each. The court accepted the contention of the defence counsel that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had failed to prove Mr. Javed’s location in his mobile call details as well as the charge about conspiring with the two main accused.

Mohammed Riyaz and Ghous Mohammed had allegedly murdered Mr. Lal at his shop in Udaipur in broad daylight on June 28, 2022, after he shared a social media post in support of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who had made some derogatory remarks on the Prophet Muhammed during a live television debate.

While the two assailants were apprehended within a few hours of the crime, Mr. Javed and a few others were arrested later on the charges of taking part in the conspiracy for the murder. Mr. Javed’s counsel Syed Saadat Ali said the NIA had arrested his client, who worked at a shop in the area, merely on the basis of his call details.

The NIA special court here had dismissed Mr. Javed’s bail application on August 31, 2023. Mr. Ali said the premier investigating agency could not point to the location where the three accused sat and conspired. “Though the NIA said that Mr. Javed had informed the main accused about Mr. Lal’s presence at his shop, the charge-sheet and the map did not show the distance between the two shops. Besides, no videography or CCTV evidence about Mr. Javed’s movement was produced in the court,” he said.

Another accused in the case, Farhad Mohammed, facing charges under the Arms Act, was granted bail by the NIA special court on September 1, 2023. Two other accused, stated to be the residents of Karachi in Pakistan, have been declared absconding, while the charge sheet named a total of 11 accused in the case.

Reacting to the high court’s order allowing the appeal against the NIA special court’s rejection of bail, Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly and Congress MLA from Alwar Rural, Tika Ram Jully, said the accused were getting bail under the rule of BJP, which indulged in politics over Mr. Lal’s murder. “This is the real face of the BJP,” Mr. Jully said in a post on X.