Prayagraj: Hours after the killing of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj, the family of one of the accused, Lavlesh Tiwari from Banda district, has said that he was at one time associated with the right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal and had not been in regular touch with his kin.
Speaking to ThePrint over the phone Sunday, Tiwari’s mother Asha said, “My son was with the Bajrang Dal four year ago. He has not been in regular touch with me. He would come home according to his wish, stay and leave. He never shared anything about his activities.”
A former Samajwadi Party legislator who was an accused in at least 130 cases ranging from murder to extortion, Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead Saturday night by three men posing as media persons while they were being escorted by the police to Prayagraj Medical College for a medical examination.
The police have identified the men who opened fire as Arun Maurya of Kasganj, Lavlesh Tiwari of Banda and Mohit alias Sunny of Hamirpur. All three have been arrested.
On Sunday morning, the police filed an FIR at Dhoomanganj police station against the three accused under Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Arms Act.
The FIR states that the accused told the police during interrogation that they wanted to “wipe out the Atiq and Ashraf gang and make a name for themselves in Uttar Pradesh”.
A police source told ThePrint that all three accused have a criminal history and might have met during their stint in jail. While their rap sheet is yet to be dug out, the three appeared to be “small-time criminals”, sources said. They added that Maurya had a murder charge against him and Sunny was not on talking terms with his family since long.
Sunny’s brother Pintu Singh told the media that the former had been unemployed and the family had no clue of his alleged involvement in the fatal attack on Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf.
“There are (criminal) cases registered against my brother. He did not do anything for a living. I was not aware that my brother was involved in the killing of Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf,” Pintu told news agency ANI.
A second police source told ThePrint that the three accused had been staying in a hotel in Prayagraj for the past 48 hours and had recced the periphery of the medical college. They also bought a microphone and a dummy camera, and secured a fake (media) ID.
According to a statement by Prayagraj Police Commissioner Ramit Sharma, the trio had arrived at the spot Saturday night pretending to be media persons.
“They were waiting for the right moment when the media would gather and they would carry out the murder,” said a senior police officer who did not wish to be named.
A preliminary investigation also revealed that the three had tried to attack the Ahmed brothers a day earlier but had failed, said the second police source.
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, ThePrint has learnt.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also read: ‘Totally reduced to dust’: Atiq Ahmed on his life — from a dreaded gangster to MP, and then in jail