Atiq murder: Police will seek remand of three assailants, says UP STF officer

Lucknow, April 18 (PTI) A senior Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) official on Tuesday said police will seek remand of the three assailants who shot dead gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, and added all the questions regarding the killing will be answered.

“The murder of Atiq-Ashraf was committed in front of the media. The three shooters are under arrest. We will take them in police remand and all the questions regarding the killing will be answered,” DIG, STF, Anand Dev Tiwari told reporters.

He said whether there was a syndicate, persons or those having enmity with them, from where they got the arms — all these questions and the real motive behind the killing will be answered when the three will be taken on remand by the police.

Ahmad (60) and Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists on Saturday night while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a check-up.

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 about the Umesh Pal murder case accused Ahmad’s wife Shaista Praveen and Guddu Muslim, who are absconding, the officer said that they will 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 the Umesh Pal murder case FIR — 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 Ahmad 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.