Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday formed a three-member SIT to probe the killing of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf who were shot dead on live TV by three men while in police custody in Prayagraj on Saturday, said Special DGP (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar. Citing a statement issued by Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police R K Vishwakarma, Kumar said the SIT was formed on the instructions of the Commissioner of Police of Prayagraj. In order to ensure qualitative investigation and time-bound action, a three-member team of supervisors has also been formed.
This team is headed by the additional director general of police of Prayagraj. The other two members are the commissioner of police of Prayagraj and the director of the Forensic Science Laboratory, Lucknow, the statement said. Atiq and Ashraf, who were arrested in connection with the killing of Umesh Pal in February this year, were gunned down in Prayagraj late Saturday night by three men posing as journalists while the siblings were being taken to a hospital under police escort.
A plea was also filed in the Supreme Court on Sunday seeking the constitution of an independent expert committee headed by a former apex court judge to probe the killings. The plea, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, also sought an inquiry into the 183 encounters that have taken place in Uttar Pradesh since 2017.
Ahmad (60) and Ashraf, who were in handcuffs, were shot dead by three men posing as journalists when they were answering reporters' queries while being escorted by police personnel to a medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj for a checkup on Saturday night. Just hours before the shooting, the last rites of Ahmad's son Asad, who along with one of his associates was gunned down in a police encounter in Jhansi on April 13, were held.
Uttar Pradesh Police had said on Friday that it has gunned down 183 alleged criminals in encounters in the six years of the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government and this included Asad and his accomplice. The plea sought the creation of an independent expert committee to probe the killings of Atiq and Ashraf.
"Issue guidelines/directions to safeguard the rule of law by constituting an Independent Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of former Supreme Court justice to inquire into the 183 encounters which had occurred since 2017 as stated by Uttar Pradesh Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) and also to inquire into the police custody murder of Atiq and Ashraf," it said.
Referring to Atiq's killing, the plea said "such actions by police are a severe threat to democracy and rule of law and lead to police state". "In a democratic society the police cannot be allowed to become a mode of delivering final justice or to become a punishing authority. The power of punishment is only vested in the judiciary," the plea stated.
