Prayagraj: A week after gangster-politicians Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf were shot dead in police custody outside the Moti Lal Nehru divisional hospital, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has recovered two mobile phones from a hotel where the three accused had allegedly stayed.
It has emerged that the accused arrived in Prayagraj as part of prior planning and rented a hotel near the spot two days before orchestrating the murders.
Manoj Kumar, the manager of the hotel, Stay Inn on Prayagraj’s Katju Road, told ThePrint that the police scanned CCTV footage from several hotels along the road and took the footage of their hotel in their possession on 16 April, the day after the incident.
The accused had allegedly arrived at the Stay Inn hotel two days before the incident, on the night of 13 April and stayed in a double-bed, air conditioned room (203) on the hotel’s second floor, police sources said.
The accused had allegedly arrived at the Stay Inn hotel two days before the incident, on the night of 13 April and stayed in a double-bed, air conditioned room (203) on the hotel’s second floor, police sources said.
“Two mobile phones have been recovered from the accused so far. We are seeking more information from them on who aided them,” a police officer privy to the investigation told ThePrint.
While the police had said earlier that they were verifying the role of a gangster from western UP in helping the accused get arms, they are also probing a possible Delhi link to the source of the arms, the officer added.
Amid reports of Delhi gangster Jitendra Gogi being the source of the Turkey-made arms, a Prayagraj police officer told ThePrint that the accused have confirmed Gogi’s name. “The trio have mentioned Gogi, but their statements are being verified,” the officer said.
Police sources confirmed that at least two of the shooters – Mohit alias Sunny Singh, and Lovlesh Tiwari – have known each other for some time.
Also read: ‘To terrorise me,’ says Atiq’s lawyer after bombs hurled near his home, cops say gang dispute
Kanpur arms dealer-criminal Babar provided arms?
In yet another development, the Kanpur police has termed as “false” news reports that claimed that the accused had sourced one of their weapons from notorious criminal Babar. Babar also allegedly supplied arms to the accused in the Kanpur violence last year, according to media reports. He is an active member of the D2 gang and has several criminal cases lodged against him.
“Everyone is requested not to pay attention to such misleading and baseless reports and refrain from any kind of false communication,” the Kanpur police commissionerate said in a statement issued on Twitter.
Meanwhile, some news reports said that there were at least two more persons who were involved in the Atiq-Ashraf murder case, a claim that the police called fake. Speaking to ThePrint, Manish Yadav, public relations officer for SP (City) Deepak Bhuker said, “It is a false report.”
Political slugfest
Meanwhile, in Lucknow, UP minister for Minority Affairs, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dharmpal Singh sparked a controversy by remarking that the Opposition is behind the killings. Speaking to mediapersons in Lucknow Saturday, the minister said, “The reality is that the Opposition was behind the murders of Atiq-Ashraf because some serious secrets were about to come out, which is why they orchestrated the killings.”
Hitting out at the minister however, the Samajwadi Party said that it was the government which was responsible for the murders. “He is lying. The murders happened in police custody and the duo was handcuffed at the time of the incident. The government is responsible for it (killings). It is an absolutely irresponsible statement that he has made,” SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary told ThePrint.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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