New Delhi: The on-camera killing of gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf when they were taken to a hospital under police security prompted the Supreme Court to ask the UP government how did the three assailants knew that the slain brothers would be paraded to the hospital.
The Supreme Court that heard a petition filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari who sought an investigation into the incident as well as other encounters that took place since the Yogi government came to power in UP ordered the UP government to submit a report on the killing in three weeks.
The court told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the UP government, that it had seen the killing on TV and questioned why the brothers were not taken in an ambulance to the hospital. The SC bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta also sought a report from the state government on the police encounter of Atiq’s son Asad in Jhansi.
The government counsel told the court that the brothers were taken for a routine medical check-up as mandated by the court to be held every two days and that the press was informed of this. The counsel added that the UP government has constituted a committee to look into the matter.
Mukul Rohatgi stated that Atiq Ahmad and his family had been involved in serious criminal cases for the past 30 years. He described the recent incident as "gruesome" and informed the court that the killers had been apprehended. According to Rohatgi, the killers had admitted to committing the crime in order to gain notoriety.
Rohatgi further explained that the incident had been captured on television and that the killers had disguised themselves as news photographers with fake passes, cameras and identity cards. He claimed that there were around 50 people present at the scene and that the killers had managed to blend in and carry out the killing.
On April 15, while being escorted by the police for a routine medical examination, Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot multiple times at close range by three assailants who had disguised themselves as journalists. The attackers later surrendered to the authorities.
In his plea, advocate Vishal Tiwari has requested the Apex court to direct an inquiry into the 183 encounters that have occurred in Uttar Pradesh since 2017 when the current government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came to power. Tiwari alleges that the killings of Ahmad and his family members were part of a pattern of eliminating criminals through extrajudicial means.