Law & Justice

Rajasthan High Court Upholds UAPA Charges in 2022 Udaipur Tailor Murder

By Hamza Khan

The Rajasthan High Court has upheld the framing of charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against eight accused in the 2022 murder of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal. On November 5, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice Sameer Jain dismissed two petitions filed by the accused, who had challenged the application of UAPA by the trial court.

Yash Teli, the son of the slain tailor, expressed relief on social media, saying, “Due to the HC’s action, our family is somewhere still hopeful of getting justice as soon as possible. It has been four years… we have been hoping for justice.” He also noted that the case has dragged on for four years and that the accused remain in Ajmer’s high‑security jail.

The murder occurred on June 28, 2022, when Mohammed Riyaz Attari and Ghouse Mohammad, posing as customers, hacked Kanhaiya Lal to death at his shop in Udaipur after he shared a social‑media post supporting BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who had been suspended for remarks about the Prophet. Yash described the incident as a “case where the accused kills, records a video, uploads it on social media, and accepts (his guilt), and also threatens to kill the Prime Minister.” He urged that the accused receive capital punishment, warning that a lack of such a sentence would erode public faith in the judiciary.

In the High Court, the accused’s lawyers argued that the recovered videos contained no material that could disturb public tranquility or threaten security, that no specific threat was directed at any individual, community, caste or religion, and that the prosecution had failed to establish grounds for invoking the UAPA. They also claimed there was no evidence linking the accused to any unlawful organization and that the trial court had framed UAPA charges without properly examining the evidence.

The High Court rejected these arguments, stating that the objections regarding the videos, the absence of explicit threatening language, and alleged lack of membership in an unlawful organization were insufficient to discharge the accused without a full examination of the prosecution material. The bench held that allegations of conspiracy and the circumstances of the incident must be considered together, and that the absence of direct evidence of conspiracy alone could not be decisive.

Yash has repeatedly questioned the delay in the case, asking why it has not been fast‑tracked. The case was initially registered by Udaipur police and re‑registered by the National Investigation Agency on June 29, 2022.