Kamlesh Tiwari

Tiwari had contested the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election from Lucknow and lost.[10][11] He had claimed himself to be the working president of Hindu Mahasabha.[6]. He later founded the Hindu Samaj Party in 2017.[9] He also contested from Faizabad in 2019 Indian general election but lost.[12]

On 2 December 2015, Azam Khan, a politician of the Samajwadi Party, stated[note 1] that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members are homosexuals and that is why they do not get married.[6][15][16] The next day, Kamlesh Tiwari retaliated to Azam Khan's statement and called Muhammad as the first homosexual in the world.[6][7] Thousands of Muslims protested in Muzaffarnagar and demanded death penalty for Tiwari,[6][17][18] with some demanding that he be "beheaded" for “insulting” Muhammad.[7] Tiwari was arrested in Lucknow on 3 December 2015 by Uttar Pradesh Police.[3][7] Protest rallies against his statement were held by several Islamic groups in other parts of India, most of them demanding death penalty.[19]

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.[8] Tiwari spent several months in jail for his comment. He was charged under Indian Penal Code sections 153-A (promoting enmity between groups on the grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).[20][21]

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groups of demanding enforcement of Islamic law of blasphemy in India.[7] His detention under National Security Act was revoked by Allahabad High Court in 2016.[22][10]

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.[23][24] 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.[24] He was declared dead during treatment at a hospital's trauma centre.[12]