Moinuddin Pathan, one of the two men who is arrested in the Kamlesh Tiwari murder case, worked as a Zomato delivery boy till October 6. He reportedly joined the platform in August this year and was hired by Zomato after a thorough ‘background check’. His Aadhaar, PAN, driving licence and other past court records were also independently checked by an agency before the food aggregator hired him.
As reported by news agency PTI, Zomato has said that the company has zero tolerance for anyone breaking the law. A Zomato spokesperson has said that the company has pledged complete support to the authorities and will assist them in the investigation. The company also said that the safety of the customers is their paramount concern.
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“We recently learnt that one Moinuddin Pathan has been detained by the Gujarat Police in connection with the murder of Mr Kamlesh Tiwari in Lucknow. It has also been brought to our notice that he was a delivery boy on the Zomato platform. Our internal investigations have revealed that the said person had been on-boarded onto the Zomato platform on August 17, 2019, in Surat. Prior to his onboarding, a background check (including a check of his Aadaar card, driving license, PAN Card and past court records) had been carried out on him by an independent agency in which his background check was clear. Between that date and October 6, 2019, he had worked on and off as a delivery person on our platform. All his deliveries were in Surat as he was based there,” the spokesperson told PTI.
Moinuddin, along with Ashfaq, were arrested by Gujarat ATS on October 22 from Gujarat-Rajasthan border after being on the run for four days. While Moinuddin worked as Zomato delivery boy, Ashfaq, second man arrested for murder of Kamlesh Tiwari, worked as medical representative in pharma company. He had forged his colleague’s Aadhaar to pose as Rohit Solanki, a Hindu rights activist, to gain trust of Tiwari.
Tiwari, a former Hindu Mahasabha leader, was assassinated at his Lucknow office by Ashfaq and Moinuddin from Surat. The Uttar Pradesh police and Gujarat ATS sprung into action to blow the lid off a Surat-based Jihadi group that was indoctrinated by one of the accused who planned the murder, Maulana Mohsin Sheikh. Two other conspirators, Rashid Pathan and Faizan have been arrested. While Ashfaq and Moinuddin will be handed over to the UP Police for further investigation, the other three accused have already been sent to UP on transit remand.