A former member of India’s Parliament convicted of kidnapping has been shot dead on live TV along with his brother while in police custody in the northern city of Prayagraj, raising questions about rule of law in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The gunmen, who appeared to have posed as journalists, fired multiple shots at Atiq Ahmed and former state legislator Ashraf Ahmed on Saturday as they were being taken in handcuffs to hospital by police for a medical checkup, authorities said.
Three suspects quickly surrendered to the police after the shooting with at least one of them chanting, “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Hail Lord Ram,” a slogan that has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists in their campaign against Muslims.
The two victims were from India’s Muslim minority. Police did not say whether they were investigating a possible sectarian motive in the killings.
Police officer Ramit Sharma told The Associated Press news agency that the three assailants arrived on motorcycles and posed as journalists.
“They managed to reach close to Atiq and his brother on the pretext of recording a byte and fired at them from close range,” he said. “Both sustained bullet injuries on the head.”
“It all happened in seconds,” Sharma said.
Another police official, Prashant Kumar, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the attackers are being questioned.
The police have identified the attackers as Lavlesh Tiwari, Arun Maurya and Sunny Singh. The trio hails from the state of Uttar Pradesh.
‘Failure of the police’
Atiq Ahmed last month had said in a petition to India’s top court that his life was under threat from the police in the state ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
His lawyer, Vijay Mishra, said the shooting was shocking because “it is a clear failure of the police in ensuring the safety” of his clients.
The shooting occurred days after Atiq’s son Asad Ahmed, 19, and an accomplice, who had both been accused of a recent murder, were killed by police in what was described as a shootout.
Atiq Ahmed, 60, was jailed in 2019 after he was convicted of kidnapping. He was a local lawmaker four times and was also elected to India’s Parliament in 2004. He reportedly faced more than 100 legal cases.
More than 180 people facing charges have been killed in Uttar Pradesh in recent years in so-called “police encounters”, which human rights groups said are often extrajudicial executions
In other news, the Uttar Pradesh Home Department has notified a three-member judicial commission to look into the killing of Atiq Ahmed and his brother. The committee will be headed by retired Justice Arvind Kumar Tripathi of Allahabad HC and will also comprise retired IPS officer Subesh Kumar Singh and retired District Judge Brijesh Kumar Soni.
Three people, accused of posing as pressmen and spraying bullets on the gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother, have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days, District Government Counsel (DGC) criminal Gulam Chandra Agrahari said on Sunday.
He said that the court has decided April 29 as the date for further hearing.
"Today all the three accused were produced before the Remand Magistrate. The three accused have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the court. Now the date of April 29 has been fixed," Gulam Chandra Agrahari told ANI.
Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, who were shot dead yesterday amid police presence, have been buried in Prayagraj at the same graveyard where his son was laid to rest.
In 2019, UN experts raised alarms about alleged police killings in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and home to 200 million people.
Hundreds of politicians belonging to all parties across India have criminal cases pending against them, and nearly half of the ministers in Uttar Pradesh are criminal suspects, according to the independent Association for Democratic Reforms monitoring group
Atiq murder: Sons of driver, farmer with little or no family ties; 2 of 3 accused have past cases against them
The three youths, arrested for the murder of Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, hail from families not so well-off and police said at least two of the assailants have a criminal track record.
The families of all three claimed that they had not been in touch for a long time. Police said they found that criminal cases had been registered in the past against two of the three arrested – 22-year-old Lavlesh Tiwari and 23-year-old Sunny Puraney. The background of the third – 18-year-old Arun Kumar Maurya – is being ascertained, police said. (
Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad, brother Ashraf buried in UP's Prayagraj
Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Khalid Azeem alias Ashraf were buried in their ancestral village in this Uttar Pradesh district on Sunday.
The bodies of Ahmad and Ashraf were taken to the Kasari Masari graveyard in ambulances. Ahmad's son Asad, an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case who fell to police bullets, was buried at the same graveyard on Saturday.
There was heavy police presence at the graveyard and only a few distant relatives of the deceased brothers and locals were present inside the burial ground. Asad was the third of the five sons of Ahmad, a former Samajwadi Party (SP) MP, and was absconding since Umesh Pal's killing on February 24. (
#WATCH | UP: Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, who were shot dead yesterday amid police presence, buried in Prayagraj. pic.twitter.com/q2wolsGIbk
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) April 16, 2023
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