Kamlesh was born in Para Kothba village of UP’s Sitapur district in the early 1970s, His family shifted to the nearby town of Mahmoodabad in 1980 after his father got a job as a priest at the local Ram-Janki temple. The family came to stay at the accommodation provided within the shrine. Kamlesh grew up there during the heyday of the Ram temple movement in Ayodhya. Tiwari got attracted to Hindutva in the 1990s, in his teens he organized a groups of 'Young Hindutva Warriors' who marched from Lucknow to Ayodhya and participated in the Demolition of the Babri Masjid. He later joined the Bajrang Dal, and was said to admire leaders such as Ashok Singhal, Lal Krishna Advani, Sadhvi Rithambara and Uma Bharati. He also claimed himself to be the working president of Hindu Mahasabha, and also founded the Hindu Samaj Party in 2017. Kamlesh had contested the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election from Lucknow in 2012 and lost. He also contested from Faizabad in 2019 Indian general election but lost.
Controversy
On 2 December 2015, in response to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley's statements in support of decriminalization of homosexuality, in India, Azam Khan, a politician of the Samajwadi Party, reportedly made homophobic remarks, stating that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members are homosexuals and which is why they don't get married. The next day, Kamlesh Tiwari retaliated to Azam Khan's statement and called Muhammad the first homosexual in the world. About one lakh Muslims protested in Muzaffarnagar and demanded death penalty for Tiwari, with some demanding that he be 'beheaded' for 'insulting' Muhammad. Tiwari was arrested in Lucknow on 3 December 2015 by Uttar Pradesh Police. Protest rallies against his statement were held by several Islamic groups in other parts of India, most of them demanding a death penalty. He spent one year in Jail. Tiwari was promptly arrested for his remarks in early December 2015, and charged under National Security Act by the Samajwadi Party-led state government in Uttar Pradesh. He spent several months in jail for his comment. He was charged under Indian Penal Code sections 153-A and 295-A. The protests demanding capital punishment for Tiwari triggered counter-protests by Hindu groups who accused Muslim groups of demanding enforcement of Islamic law of blasphemy in India. His detention under National Security Act was revoked by Allahabad High Court in 2016.
Murder
On 18 October 2019, Tiwari was murdered by two muslim assailants, Farid-ud-din Shaikh and Ashfak Shaikh, in his office-cum-residence at Lucknow. The assailants came dressed in saffron kurtas to give him a sweets box with an address of a sweet shop in Surat city in Gujarat. Tiwari's aide Saurashtrajeet Singh was sent to bring cigarettes for them and when he returned he found Tiwari lying with his throat slit. According to police officials, the assailants kept a revolver and knife inside the sweets box. During the attack, one assailant slit his throat while another fired at him. He was declared dead during treatment at a hospital's trauma centre. According to the post-mortem report, he was stabbed 15 times.
Investigation
Two ISIS suspects previously detained by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad, had accepted that they wanted to kill Kamlesh Tiwari in 2017. Al-Hind Brigade, a lesser known group, claimed the responsibility of death of Tiwari. By 19 October 2019, six accused involved in the murder of Tiwari, including Khurshid Ahmed Pathan, Faizan Pathan and Maulana Mohsin Sheikh were detained by the Surat Police, Gujarat ATS and Uttar Pradesh Police. The police used CCTV footage of a sweet mart in Surat whose address was found on the sweets box. According to the police, the pistol used in the murder was bought in Surat and the murder was planned in Dubai.They also confirmed that Tiwari’s comment on Muhammad was the motive for his murder.
