A day after Gangster turned politician, Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead in the presence of U.P. Police, a petition was filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation into the matter.
The plea has been moved by retired IPS officer Amitabh Thakur seeking the direction of the Apex Court to the State of Uttar Pradesh transferring the 3-respondents, Sunny Singh, Lovlesh Tiwari and Arun Maurya from the custody of U.P. Police to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Furthermore, the Petitioner has also sought a probe by a judicial committee looking directly into the matter whereas examining the investigation conducted by CBI.
The Petitioner asserted that time is of immense value and investigation must be speedy as there is a risk of the 3-accused getting killed in judicial custody taking with them all the crucial information that will be gone forever.
Probe on previous encounters
The Petitioner prayed that the committee should investigate previous encounters in Uttar Pradesh since 2017 which is a whopping 183 encounters. Further, the petitioner also sought CBI to probe the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey.
On 13th April 2024, Atiq Ahmed’s son, Asad Ahmed was shot dead in Jhansi by Uttar Pradesh special task force, who was absconding and was a key accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. Asad was gunned down along with the co-accused Ghulam both the accused had a bounty of Rs. 5 lacks on them.
As per the reports, Ghulam open fire at the STF and both were gunned down in retaliatory action, whereas sophisticated weapons, SIM cards and cell phones had recovered from the two.
Was it a Conspiracy?
The petitioner in his plea raised a question, how is it possible for such an incident to take place with high security and under the full supervision of U.P. Police? The plea also stated why the security seems to be weakened only at that point in time. Why was the media allowed to interact with the accused? Petitioner strongly asserted that there are chances that the murder of Atiq Ahmed was backed by the state, where potent personalities could be involved.
As per the reports by India TV, the 3-accused of killing Atiq used Turkey-made semi-automatic pistol Ziganahttps://www.indiatvnews.com/uttar-pradesh/atiq-ahmed-killers-used-turkey-made-zigana-pistol-same-weapon-used-in-moosewala-murder-up-police-latest-news-2023-04-16-863991. The accused wanted to become gangsters and did not get any chance earlier but this time they got a chance and murdered Atiq Ahmed.
The two brothers were handcuffed and were taken for medical examination at around 10 PM on 15th April 2024 at Medical College, Prayagraj while being in Police custody with approximately 17-18 police personnel. Atiq Ahmed was shot point blank while talking to the media person and his brother Ashraf was shot in the chest when they were being taken from the gate of the hospital to the facility for medical examination. A total of nine bullets were fired at Atiq Ahmed the autopsy reports suggest. The three accused surrendered on the spot after killing the gangster brothers.
