SIT says three shooters who killed Atiq Ahmad, brother Ashraf on live TV were 'on their own'

Police said that the three accused took sole responsibility of the killings on themselves and said that they had carried out the killings to earn a big name in the world of crime.

Prayagraj: The Special Investigation Team of the Uttar Pradesh Police has interrogated the three shooters who shot dead don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his younger brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf. Police have said that the three shooters acted on their own. Atiq and Ashraf, who were arrested in the Umesh Pal murder case, were shot dead in Prayagraj by three men on the night of Apr. 15 while they were beign taken to a medical college for a medical check-up.

The three shooters identified as Lavlesh Tiwari, Sunny Singh and Arun Maurya were instantly arrested by the police and taken into custody. After the incident, the Prayagraj Police Commissioner constituted a three-member inquiry committee to investigate the entire matter. Police had also obtained the remand of the three shooters from Apr. 20-23.

Sources said that the police interrogated Lavlesh Tiwari, Sunny Singh and Arun Maurya in several rounds by questioning them separately and jointly as well. During questioning, all the three accused took sole responsibility of the killings on themselves. The accused said that they had carried out the killings to earn a big name in the world of crime.

'Seeing Assad on TV, I was determined to do the same':Sources said that during interrogation, Sunny Singh said that on Feb. 24, he had seen Asad on TV openly shooting at Umesh Pal, the key witness in the Raju Pal murder case, on the road with a foreign pistol leading to his on spot death. Since the killing, the idea of doing something similar started coming in his mind, Sunny Singh told police.

He said that he had planned that if the police caught Asad, by killing him in the same way as Umesh Pal, he could come in the headlines. But, his plan did not succeed due to Asad not being caught. However, when he came to know about Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf being brought to Prayagraj, he decided to kill Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf and earn a name in the world of crime, Sunny Singh said.

He said he accordingly hatched a plan along with Lavlesh Tiwari and Arun Maurya to execute the killings. Sunny said that he is a fan of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and wanted to earn a name in the crime world.

Foreign pistols recovered from shooter Sunny Singh: Police have also recovered two foreign pistols from arrested shooter Sunny Singh. Sunny told the police that he had got the two foreign pistols from Jitendra Gogi of Delhi. Sunny said that he also worked closely with the Jitendra Gogi gang and was given contract to kill a lawyer living in Delhi NCR.

But, Jitendra was killed even before the planned killing after which Sunny had kept both the foreign pistols with him.