Prayagraj: Gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, both accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, faced a rigorous 15-hour interrogation at the Dhumanganj police station in Prayagraj here. Both the gangsters kept giving evasive answers but, however, confirmed their enmity with Umesh Pal and the latter's unwillingness to reach a compromise that eventually led to his murder.
During the ongoing custody remand, the police are trying to find out how the gangsters hatched the Umesh Pal murder plan and who are involved directly and indirectly in executing the killing. On how they got arms and cartridges from Pakistan, the gangsters gave information that the arms reached Punjab by drones and from there some handlers were engaged.
The police broadly asked a set of 15 questions in the interrogation went on for 15 hours. Many police teams took part in this questioning. Sources said that the police interrogation of Atiq and Ashraf began at around 11 o'clock on Thursday night and continued till dawn. The police interrogated both of them in different rooms. After this, in the early hours of Friday, both of them were interrogated jointly.
Questions asked by police to Atiq and Ashraf
1 Why did you get Umesh Pal murdered?
2 When was the conspiracy to kill Umesh Pal hatched?
3 Who ordered to kill the policemen present with Umesh?
4 Who was the head of the team that executed the assassination?
5 How many people went to the spot during the incident?
6 What was the backup in case the murder plan failed?
7 Apart from those who are captured in CCTV, who were the other people present at the time of the incident or near the incident site?
8 Who selected the shooters?
9 Who funded the shooters before and after the incident?
10 After the incident, who ran away with whose help and who arranged the vehicles to run away?
11 Where did the guns used in the incident come from, and who gave the guns to the shooters?
12 How did you get the arms and cartridges from Pakistan?
13 How did the arms and cartridges coming from Pakistan reach the Atiq gang?
14 Did you use the weapons that came from Pakistan yourself or supply them to someone else, to whom did you sell Pakistani weapons?
15 Through whom the Pakistani arms smugglers were contacted and how did they pay them?
No clear answers
In the 15-hour interrogation by the police, Atiq and Ashraf did not give a direct answer to any question. Mafia brothers kept answering every question in roundabout ways. However, during this, both of them accepted the enmity with Umesh Pal. Atiq and Ashraf admitted that they had tried many times to compromise with Umesh Pal.
Umesh Pal overturned their proposals for a patch-up each time. So, Atiq decided to teach him a lesson. After he went to jail in 2017, he could not do anything. Now his son Asad, who eliminated Umesh Pal, is dead. Both Atiq and Ashraf were immersed in grief which was why the police also had a lot of trouble questioning them.
Along with this, Umesh Pal kept shying away from giving direct answers to the questions related to the murder case. According to police sources, the mafia brothers would eventually break down during interrogation and confess many things.
Police had received information that foreign weapons were being brought to Punjab with the help of drones from Pakistan. From there the weapons reached Atiq Ahmed. The money was transferred to the account of the Pakistani handler. The police are also trying to trace the bank account which was used for the money transaction. Atiq and Ashraf did not give clear information about the bank account but have given details of the person through whom money was transferred to the handler in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the STF (State Task Force) team wanted to get information from Atiq-Ashraf about absconding shooters Sabir, Armaan and Guddu in the Umesh Pal murder case. The STF team was trying to get some clues about the absconding shooters so that they can be caught.
