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The SIT formed to investigate the murder of Hindu outfit leader Kamlesh Tiwari arrested Bareilly-based cleric Kafi Ali on Thursday for allegedly providing shelter to the two suspected killers while they were on the run.
Sources said that the SIT has also picked up one Naved, from Bareilly, who allegedly helped the suspected assailants — Ashfaq Hussain Jakir Hussain Shaikh (34) and Farid alias Moinuddin Khurshid Pathan (27) — to travel to Nepal to escape.
Ashfaq and Moinuddin were arrested at the Gujarat-Rajasthan border by Gujarat ATS on Tuesday. They were handed over to the UP Police on a transit remand and brought to Lucknow, where a local court on Thursday sent them to three days of police custody.
“Kafi Ali provided shelter to Ashfaq and Moinuddin for around three hours in Bareilly. He has been booked under IPC section 216 (harbouring offender). He would be booked under more charges if the ongoing investigation found him involved in the murder conspiracy,” an SIT officer said.
Read | Killers shot Kamlesh Tiwari, stabbed him 15 times: Autopsy report
Meanwhile, Naved had allegedly arranged shelter for Ashfaq and Moinuddin in Nepal after they escaped from Lucknow after the murder. Both stayed at a house in Nepal for a day but had returned through Lakhimpur Kheri border.