Kamlesh Tewari's killers from Surat were holed up in Lucknow inn

LUCKNOW: The murder weapon and a blood-soaked towel seized on Sunday from the room of a two-star hotel, just 2km from the office-cum-residence of slain right-wing leader Kamlesh Tewari took police closer on the assassins' trail, with CCTV camera footage at the hotel reception corroborating their movements before and after execution of the plan.
The killers, who checked in the night before the crime, returned to the room and dumped the knife, bags, shaving kit, saffron attire and a bloodied towel before slipping out, without footing the bill.The manager of the hotel on the busy Lal Kuan-Hussainganj crossing stretch in the city sent an SOS to police late Saturday about two suspicious-looking men having booked a room under names of Ashfaq Hussain and Moinuddin Ahmad and fleeing without checking out. The identity proof provided to the hotel's reception at the time of booking had a Surat address, he told police.
A team of police and forensic experts scoured the hotel room early Sunday and collected clinching evidence. CCTV footage at the hotel reception matched with the appearance of killers captured on camera outside Tewari's Khursheedbagh residence. Senior UP Police officers told TOI the killers may have fled to Nepal. "Their last mobile location was somewhere near Delhi," the officer said.
Manager of Khalsa Inn, Anis Ansari, told TOI that around 11.08pm on October 17, two youths in shorts and a T-shirt came in an autorickshaw and booked a room.
‘Killers kept hotel staff at bay, operated mysteriously’
They showed Aadhaar cards as ID proof, which mentioned their names as Ashfaq Hussain and Moinuddin Ahmad, both residents of Jeelani Apartments, Surat,” he said.
“Around midnight, they ordered a ‘simple-thali’ for dinner and then asked for extra chapatis. When the housekeeper knocked, they did not allow him to enter. Instead, Ashfaq came out to collect the food. After dinner, they again refused entry to the housekeeper and instead went down to deliver the plates at the reception. Well past midnight, they went out for a smoke and returned 45 minutes later,” he said.
Ansari said the next day, the duo did not have breakfast and went out around 11.38 am. “They were wearing saffroncoloured clothes and carried a box of sweets. The duo also enquired about the location of Baba Abbas Ki Mazaar and Bada Imambara and left,” said Ansari. They returned around 1.21 pm, and went inside the room and came out around 1.35 pm, but this time, they were clad in a lower and T-shirt. “They told us they were going out for lunch and would return shortly. But they did not come back,” he said.
“On October 19 night, when the room was still locked, we sought permission from the owner to break into the room. We recovered suspected objects and instantly informed police,” said the manager.
Lucknow SSP Kalanidhi Naithani said, “We recovered vital clues from the hotel room, including the address of Jeelani Apartments, Surat, from where the three other members of their gang were arrested by Gujarat ATS. The trio is now in UP Police custody on transit remand and will be produced in court. We will be seeking their police remand.”