In New Delhi, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of the trial for the murder of Hindu Samaj party leader Kamlesh Tiwari from Lucknow to Prayagraj. Judge SK Kaul passed the order in response to requests by Ashfaq Hussain and other defendants seeking to transfer the case from Lucknow.

Senior defense attorney Meenakshi Arora and defense attorney Somesh Chandra Jha appeared in court for the defendant and proposed to transfer the matter to Prayagraj after the court is not inclined to transfer the trial of the case to Delhi.

The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government in 2020, seeking its response to this matter. The defenders who appeared in court for the defendants sought the intervention of the court to transfer the trial from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi because they feared that their lives would be threatened.

Lucknow police filed charges against 13 people in the case in December last year.

The police have stated that the two main defendants, Ashfaq and Moinuddin, have been charged with murder, while 11 others have been arrested under other IPC regulations, including asylum defendants, deception, dishonesty and conspiracy.

The people on the charge list are Ashfaq, Moinuddin, Rashid Pathan, Faizan, Mohsin Sheikh, Sayeed Asif, Mohd Naved, Raees Ahmad, Asif Raza, Kamran, Yusuf Khan, Zafar Sadiq and Kaifi Ali.

According to the charge, the defendant conspired to kill Kamlesh Tiwari, who made disrespectful remarks against the Prophet Muhammad in 2015.