New Delhi/Lucknow: Jailed gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf – both in custody of the Uttar Pradesh Police – were killed late on Saturday, April 15, while being taken for medical examination and while speaking to reporters. Three men have been reportedly detained.
The news agency PTI has reported that the murders took place at the Dhoomanganj Police Station in Prayagraj.
UP CM Adityanath has ordered a “high-level inquiry” into the matter and has asked for the formation of a three-member judicial commission to look into it, ANI is reporting.
Prayagraj Police officials in their first reaction to the killing said that they will be in a position to offer details only after investigating those who have been detained. Dainik Bhaskar has reported that they were “unknown persons.” In some video clips being shared widely across social media, slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” can be heard over visuals as two people are seen being apprehended by the police.
The police later said three assailants have been arrested. According to Commissioner of Police Ramit Sharma, police recovered weapons from the assailants. Sharma also says a detailed interrogation is ongoing. He added that a Lucknow-based journalist and one police constable, Maan Singh, sustained minor injuries during the incident.
Police also recovered several rounds of ammunition from the weapons that were used to murder Atiq and Ashraf. Sources said the assailants have been identified as Lavlesh Tiwari, Sunny and Arun Maurya.
There is now heavy police deployment in sensitive towns to maintain law and order. All 75 towns of the state are on high alert, and Section 144 has been imposed in Prayagraj. Police were roaming the streets of the state capital till late at night. Police also started patrolling in Prayagraj on a Sunday morning.
A video on Twitter captures a television channel’s running footage of Atiq and Ashraf speaking to reporters while walking, when shooters come and fire at them both. Viewer discretion is advised. The murders were thus televised fully to TV audiences, with no breaks or blurs.
The brothers’ lawyer Vijay Mishra told NDTV that they were being taken for medical examination at around 10 pm with very minimal security arrangement. Mishra pointed out that they were being accompanied by around seven policemen, despite the fact that Atiq being called one of the masterminds of the recent daylight murder of Umesh Pal in Prayagraj.
A Prayagraj-based journalist told The Wire that Atiq and Ashraf were taken for a medical examination to the Motilal Nehru Divisional Hospital in Prayagraj yesterday (April 14) as well but the police security tonight was comparatively weaker than yesterday’s. The journalist added that in Atiq’s last few outings, the security arrangements were considerable, and expressed surprise over the lean police convoy tonight.
Several social media accounts have tweeted what appears to be Atiq and Ashraf’s bloodied corpses.
The Ahmed brothers were killed two days after Uttar Pradesh Police killed Atiq’s son Asad and another man in an “encounter” in Jhansi. Atiq, it has been reported, was not allowed to attend his son’s burial this morning.
The back-to-back killings will likely intensify the political tussle over law and order on one side and the rule of law on the other.
Atiq had earlier approached the Supreme Court, saying that he feared he would be killed in a fake encounter, like Vikas Dubey was. The SC had turned down his plea. Lodged in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Atiq was taken into custody by Uttar Pradesh police on April 11 in the Umesh Pal murder case.
Atiq, is a former MP and MLA, and has been associated with various political parties, including the Samajwadi Party and earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party.
Atiq and his aides were accused of kidnapping and torturing Umesh Pal, who was the primary witness in a murder case in which Atiq was allegedly involved, in 2007. Atiq was also named main accused after Pal and two men assigned as his security detail were murdered earlier this year.
He was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by an MP-MLA court in an abduction case last month.
Earlier, two of Atiq’s alleged aides, accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, were killed in separate encounters by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The brothers’ murder in police custody by assailants will likely create much political flutter in the days to come.
Swatantra Dev Singh, minister of Jal Shakti at the government of UP, wrote in Hindi that “calculations of sin are done in this birth itself”.
Opposition politicians struck a different chord.
Only today, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that only Adityanath government was being selective in targeting alleged criminals and said that no action was being taken against Rajput community criminals as they belonged to the same caste group as the CM. Yadav also released a list of alleged Rajput community criminals who have remained free.
Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in the aftermath of the news of the murders breaking and said that a shootout in the presence of police bandobast only reflects the failing law and order situation in UP.
Congress’s Jairam Ramesh tweeted soon after news broke and appeared to allege that this was “headline manipulation” by the home minister, without mentioning why.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi wrote on the criminal justice system.
Note: This is a breaking news copy and is being updated as new information comes in.
With inputs from Asad Rizvi.