Prayagraj: Amid tensions and heated arguments between locals and policemen, the bodies of slain gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were laid to rest by their relatives, including their minor children, in Prayagraj late Sunday.
The burial, at Kasari Masari graveyard, was followed by an outpouring of sentiment from members of the Muslim community in Chakia colony, where Atiq resided and had his office. They turned up in huge numbers to participate in the duo’s funeral and pour soil, according to Muslim tradition.
While the bodies had been brought to the graveyard as early as 6 pm, the burial could only take place at around 9 pm after all other rites had been performed. Prior to the burial, a post-mortem exam had been conducted on the bodies by a panel of three doctors and the procedure was videographed.
Several teams of the Prayagraj Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed at the spot to beef up security, while heated arguments could be heard between the police and locals who were stopped from entering the burial ground.
With hundreds of locals gathered for the burial, many were not allowed entry into the grounds by the police after 7 pm.
Some of the locals alleged that the “police were trying to create tensions by refusing to allow them to enter the burial area despite having ample space to accommodate people”.
“It is a Muslim’s right to offer soil to the deceased person but they are not even letting us do that. We are being asked to bring out identity cards and when we did, they are claiming that there are too many people at the spot,” Mohammed Arif, a resident of the area, told ThePrint.
Another resident, Mohammed Zeeshan, said: “He (Atiq) was an MP from Phulpur once and an MLA (from Allahabad West constituency) five times, so it is natural that he will have the public’s love. If he was so bad, then he would not have become an MLA five times.”
“Let’s assume that he did wrong — but he also got punished, right?” Zeeshan added.
Others among the public alleged that the police had prepared a list of 100 people and only those were allowed inside the grounds, while the police said they had stopped entry of the public only after a particular time.
Asked why people were not allowed to enter the spot, inspector Anoop Singh from the Prayagraj Police told ThePrint that officials had stopped entry after a particular time because around 150 people had gathered at the spot.
Atiq Ahmed, former Samajwadi Party (SP) legislator who was an accused in at least 130 cases ranging from murder to extortion, and Ashraf were shot dead Saturday night by three men posing as media persons while being escorted by the police to a Prayagraj hospital for medical examination.
The police have arrested and identified the men who opened fire as Arun Maurya of Kasganj, Lavlesh Tiwari of Banda and Mohit alias Sunny of Hamirpur. The three were produced before a Prayagraj court Sunday and remanded to police custody for 14 days.
Also Read: ‘It was over in 30 seconds’ — eyewitnesses recall fatal attack on Atiq Ahmed, Ashraf in Prayagraj
Accused not known to each other, bigger conspiracy suspected
Amid reports that the Prayagraj Police were probing the angle of contract killing, an officer from the force told ThePrint that the three accused belonged to different districts of UP and were not known to each other, which is why they were probing the possibility of a bigger conspiracy behind the murders.
“The trio recced the spot, stayed in a hotel and were supplied with foreign-made arms. They were provided with fake identity cards and cameras. Links are being established and the mastermind is being traced,” a senior police officer told ThePrint.
The three shooters used two sophisticated ‘made in Turkey’ weapons — a Zigana F (automatic) and Girsan 9MM parabellum (Regard MC) pistol, along with a country-made 30 bore pistol — to execute the killing, police sources told ThePrint.
“The accused were in possession of high-end arms costing between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, which suggests that arms were provided to the men and points to a deeper conspiracy,” a Prayagraj Police officer said.
According to the police, of the three shooters, Mohit alias Sunny Singh was a hardened criminal and history-sheeter who had left his home years ago, Lavlesh was a self-styled Hindutva activist whose father used to work as a driver in Banda, while Arun Maurya’s father was a golgappa-seller in Kasganj.
The Uttar Pradesh government has set up a three-member judicial committee to probe the murder of Atiq and his brother and asked them to give a report in two months.
In a statement issued Sunday, the state’s home department said the panel will be chaired by Allahabad High Court Judge (retired) Arvind Kumar Tripathi, and its other members will be retired judge Brijesh Kumar Soni and former Director-General of Police Subesh Kumar Singh.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also read: ‘Nahi le gaye toh nahi gaye’: Atiq Ahmed’s last words before being shot dead in Prayagraj