Prayagraj: Three persons have been arrested for the sensational murder of former politician convicted of kidnapping Atiq Ahmed and his brother while being escorted by the police in Uttar Pradesh late Saturday.
The murder of the dreaded gangster came just days after his son was killed in an encounter with UP Police in Jhansi.
The incident, which took place at approximately 10 pm, was captured on film by journalists who were trailing the two handcuffed siblings. Video showed Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf, speaking to journalists on the way to a medical check-up at a nearby hospital seconds when a hand appeared out of nowhere and shot the two in the head. Three man who had been posing as journalists quickly surrendered and were taken into custody.
In the footage, Ahmed is asked whether he attended his son’s funeral, and his last words to camera are: “They did not take us, so we did not go.”
“Shooters were posing as journalists. As Atiq reached for a check-up, they were surrounded by other journalists and got close to Atiq and his brother. One was having a camera and was posing as a cameraman. While one was roaming with a mike where it was written NCR News. Third was assisting both,” police sources said.
Those arrested have been identified as Lovlesh Tiwari of Banda, Sunny Singh of Hamirpur and Arun Maurya of Kasganj. The alleged killers were caught chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on camera after murder. All three assailants are being interrogated at three different police stations in Prayagraj.
Surprisingly, the families of all three men had disowned the assailants and had left their homes much before the incident, the TOI reported.
Ahmed had previously claimed there was a threat to his own life from the police.
A former MP, he was an accused in the 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case and also in the Umesh Pal murder case which happened in February this year and had been brought to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh to face the charges.
He was jailed in 2019 after being convicted of kidnapping.
Meanwhile, Section 144 has been clamped and internet suspended across Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led UP government has ordered a high-level probe into the killings. “The chief minister has constituted a three-member judicial commission to probe the killing of Ahmad and Ashraf,” Special DG, of Law and Order, Prashant Kumar told PTI.
