The three assailants, who gunned down mafia-politician and former member of Parliament (MP) Atiq Ahmad and his former legislator brother, Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on Saturday, had been following the duo along with the crowd of media persons right since they were sent on police remand, according to the first information (FIR) report in the case.
The named FIR, a copy of which is with HT, mentions that during interrogation by police about their motive, the three assailants confessed that they killed Atif and Ashraf to wipe out their gang and make a name for themselves in the state by doing so, which would have benefitted them in future.
The FIR was lodged by the station house officer (SHO) of Dhumanganj police station, inspector Rajesh Kumar Maurya. It has named Lavlesh Tiwari (22) of Banda, Mohit aka Shani (23) of Hamirpur and Arun Maurya Kumar (18) of Kasganj district as the accused.
The FIR states that the trio along with weapons were nabbed from the crime spot itself. It said that the assailants posing as media persons approached Atiq and Ashraf along with other media representatives as the duo was being taken by police to the Motilal Nehru (Colvin) Divisional Hospital for their daily medical examination.
The medical examination was mandated by the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court of Prayagraj while awarding Atiq and Ashraf four-day police remand to the Dhumanganj police in connection with the February 24 murders of lawyer Umesh Pal and his two police guards, in which the duo is among the main named accused.
{{/usCountry}}The medical examination was mandated by the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court of Prayagraj while awarding Atiq and Ashraf four-day police remand to the Dhumanganj police in connection with the February 24 murders of lawyer Umesh Pal and his two police guards, in which the duo is among the main named accused.
{{/usCountry}}The Dhumanganj police’s FIR said before anyone could react the three assailants opened fire using sophisticated firearms on Atiq and Ashraf from close range.
“The FIR has been registered under different sections of IPC (Indian Penal Code) including section 302 (murder), and 307 (attempt to commit murder), besides sections 3 (using prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition), 7 (prohibition of acquisition or possession, or of manufacture or sale of prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition) and 25 (possession or carrying any prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition) and 27 (using any arms or ammunition sans license) of the Arms Act and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment (CLA) Act,” said Ashwani Kumar Singh, SHO of Shahganj police station.
According to the FIR, the trio confessed that they failed to gauge the security arrangements in place and therefore could not flee the scene and got caught. They also confessed that they had targeted the two brothers earlier as well but could not succeed due to lack of a right opportunity, the FIR added.
To be sure, a confession or disclosure statement of any person made before a police officer is not admissible as evidence before a court unless it is backed by other evidence. Only a confession before a judge is admissible as evidence against an accused.
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