The Uttar Pradesh administration, whose police stood and watched two high-profile accused in their custody being shot under their nose, has woken up and ordered three investigations in two days while moving to enhance the security of jittery government members.
The state on Monday formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the security arrangements for former Samajwadi Party MP and alleged gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, who were gunned down in a crowded place outside a hospital in Allahabad City.
The team will probe the killers’ mode of operation and the roles and responsibilities of the 17 now-suspended policemen who had escorted the brothers to the hospital for a routine checkup.
The government has also formed a three-member monitoring team, headed by the additional director-general of police, Allahabad zone, Bhanu Bhaskar, that will look beyond Allahabad for any incidents or circumstances related to the double murder.
On Sunday, the government had constituted a judicial commission with Justice Arvind Kumar Tripathi, a retired judge of Allahabad High Court; Brijesh Kumar Soni, a retired district judge; and Subesh Kumar Singh, a former director-general of police (DGP); to inquire into the double murder.
“The commission will complete the probe within two months. The SIT is expected to do it as soon as possible,” Prashant Kumar, special DGP, law and order, said in Lucknow.
Satish Chandra, an assistant deputy commissioner of police, will head the three-member SIT, which includes additional police commissioner Satyendra Tiwari and crime branch inspector Om Prakash Singh.
The three alleged killers had emptied their pistols on the brothers over 40-odd seconds and were apprehended only after they threw away their handguns and surrendered.
Atiq and Ashraf had spent the last five years in jail as murder accused. Atiq is also a life convict in a kidnapping case. They had been taken into police custody to be questioned about another murder and possible links with the ISI, Lashkar and a Pakistani arms dealer.
The Supreme Court had on March 28 rejected Atiq’s petition for additional security and asked him to approach Allahabad High Court.
Atiq, who was in a jail in Sabarmati, Gujarat, had said he was unsafe in Uttar Pradesh where he had a trial court appearance scheduled in the last week of April.