Udaipur killing accused paid ₹1,000 to get ‘2611’ for bike number plate
The Udaipur murder accused fled from the spot using a motorcycle with registration number 2611, a possible reference to the date of 2008 Mumbai terror attack
Nine years before Mohammad Riyaz Akhtari killed tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan’s Udaipur on Tuesday, he paid ₹1,000 to get ‘2611’ for his motorcycle’s registration number.
Which is a possible reference to the date of 2008 Mumbai terror attack, people familiar with the matter said.
It was on this bike Riyaz and Gaus Mohammed fled from the spot after hacking Kanhaiya to death for supporting former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Mohammed. Police confirmed that the registration number of the bike was RJ 27 AS 2611. They were caught near Bhim town in Rajsamand.
Udaipur regional transport officer, Prabhu Lal Bamaniya, said a sum of ₹1,000 through demand draft was charged from the vehicle owner for the number, 2611. The bike was registered on March 15, 2013.
The terror attacks in Mumbai took place on November 26, 2008, in which 166 people were killed by around a dozen Pakistani terrorists.
A person familiar with the development said that Riyaz’s interest in getting a number symbolising 26/11 terror attacks for his motorcycle and the kind of content he was posting on WhatsApp groups, especially in the last few weeks, indicated their radical mindset.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing whether Riyaz and Gaus are part of a larger international terror network or a “local self-radicalised terror gang with no outside support,” officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The agency is also interrogating Gaus for his possible links with Karachi-based organisation Dawat-e-Islami, they added.
The accused captured the murder on their phones and issued a threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they proudly posed with the knives used in the crime.