The three shooters, who killed gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in police custody, were produced before a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in Prayagraj on Wednesday.
“The murder of Atiq-Ashraf was committed in front of the media. The three shooters are under arrest. We will take them on police remand and all the questions regarding the killing will be answered,” he told reporters.
He said when the three assailants would be taken on police remand, questions on whether there was any syndicate, from where they obtained arms and ammunition, or if persons or those would have enmity with them and the real motive behind the shooting will be answered.
On Saturday night, Atiq and Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by the three shooters who posed as journalists while the police were taking them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a medical check-up.
Security has been tightened outside the CJM court. The three assailants — Mohit alias Sunny (23) of Hamirpur, Lavlesh Tiwari (22) of Banda and Arun Maurya (18) of Kasganj — are presently in Pratapgarh jail.
When asked whether Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen and Guddu Muslim, who are the absconding accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, the officer stated that both would be arrested soon.
“We have limitations but they have a number of means to evade arrest. As far as Guddu Muslim is concerned, he is known as Guddu ‘bombaaz’ and is expert in evading arrest, while Praveen remains as ‘pardanashin’ (in veil). But we will be arresting them soon,” Tiwari said.
Apart from Ahmad and Ashraf, four others named in an FIR in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case — Asad, Arbaaz, Vijay Chaudhary alias Usman and Ghulam — have also been killed.
Umesh Pal was a key witness in the 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, in which Atiq was also an accused.
The FIR in the Umesh Pal murder case was lodged under relevant sections of IPC, including 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), and under the Explosive Substances Act by his wife Jaya Pal on February 25.
(with inputs from PTI)
