"2 Men Recced Shop, Protect Me": Udaipur Tailor To Cops Days Before Murder

Tailor Kanhaiya Lal, whose grisly murder on camera by two men triggered tension in Rajasthan's Udaipur and a terror investigation, had complained to the police about threats from his neighbours over a social media post.

Kanhaiya Lal was arrested on June 11 over a post on social media supporting BJP leader Nupur Sharma, whose provocative comments on Prophet Muhammad caused outrage among Gulf nations and protests in the country earlier this month.

He was released on bail a day later. On June 15, he went to the police complaining about death threats.

In the complaint, he claimed that the social media post was "sent by mistake" by his son, who was playing a game on his mobile phone.

"Five-six days ago, my son, while playing a game on the mobile phone, suddenly put up an objectionable post by mistake, which I didn't know of," Kanhaiya Lal wrote in his complaint on June 15.

"But two days later, two men came and tried to take my mobile phone," he said.

The 48-year-old said for three days, two men had been lurking near his shop and had stopped him from opening it.

"They have been doing a recce of my shop for three days and are not allowing me to open the shop. They are pressuring me," Kanhaiya Lal alleged, naming his neighbours.

"Please take action against these people, help me open my shop and protect me," Kanhaiya Lal said in his complaint.

The police tried to resolve the problem by calling the tailor and the neighbours he had accused of threatening him, along with leaders of both communities.

"All parties and community leaders were called to the police station and the matter was resolved," said senior police officer Hawa Singh Ghumariya.

Then Kanhaiya Lal gave in writing that everything was resolved and that he did not need any more police action.

But he was still afraid, said his wife Yashoda.

"He did not go to his shop for one week. He went for the first time yesterday," she said.

The police say those who attacked him were not the people who had threatened him.

Kanhaiya Lal was killed in his shop by two men, Gos Mohammad and Riyaz Akhtari, who filmed the crime and bragged about it in a video, also threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two were arrested when they were trying to escape on a bike, their faces covered by helmets.

Protests broke out yesterday over the killing, after which the state government ordered curfew in parts of Rajasthan and shut down internet and large gatherings for a month.