The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the assassination of the mafia don Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed revealed on Friday that one of their assailants, Arun Maurya, was a part of the Whatsapp group ‘Sher-e-Atiq’ created by Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad Ahmed. The revelation was reportedly made while SIT was interrogating the three shooters, Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh and Lovelesh Tiwari.
According to reports, the Whatsapp group was created to glorify Atiq Ahmed. Photos and videos of the dreaded gangster and stories extolling his supremacy and clout were regularly shared on the group with the aim to “target politically aware youth in Prayagraj and encourage them to work for Atiq.”
The Whatsapp group was created by none other than Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad Ahmed, who was killed in retaliatory firing by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police on 13 April. The WhatsApp group was created before the murder of Umesh Pal. Old videos of Mafia Atiq Ahmed and stories of how he used to terrorise people used to be shared in the group.
One of the accused in #AtiqAhmed's murder, Arun Maurya was part of a WhatsApp group (Sher-e-Atiq) managed by Asad, Atiq's son.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) April 20, 2023
"The aim of this group was to likely target politically aware youth in Prayagraj & encourage them to work for Atiq," @Amir_Haque tells @anchoramitaw. pic.twitter.com/qQxrHRQJsU
Asad Ahmed was the administrator of this group, which included 56 members from 14 districts. Asad’s friends and members of the Ateeq Ahmed gang were associated with the Sher-e-Ateeq group. The WhatsApp group was deleted a couple of days before the murder of Umesh Pal.
Maurya joined another group Gang-90 after ‘Sher-e-Atiq’ was shut down. He met co-accused Sunny and Lovelesh through this Gang-90. Gang-90 was named after the RTO registration number 90 of Banda.
The fact that Arun was part of a group made by Asad shows that he was known to the gangster.
SIT recreates the crime scene as part of probe into Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed’s murder
Meanwhile, yesterday (April 20) the Special Investigation Team (SIT) recreated the crime scene as part of its ongoing investigation into Atiq Ahmed and his brother’s murder. Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead while being taken for a medical checkup on 15th April 2023 at around 10:40 pm.
Atiq and his brother Ashraf were interacting with media persons when 3 miscreants, who posed as media persons, opened fire at Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed on April 15.
The police had arrested the three from the spot at the time of the incident. Many cases were already registered against the trio. The court sent the three killers, namely, Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh and Lovelesh Tiwari to judicial custody for 14 days.
Assasins reveal their motive behind the shooting of the mafia dons
During interrogation, the three had reportedly revealed their motive behind the murder. According to Jagran, the trio informed that they took out Ahmed for killing innocent people. “Atiq Ahmed use to kill for grabbing land and would not spare those who testified against him. His brother Ashraf was also involved. So, we killed both of them”, they were quoted as saying. The trio also told the police that they killed Atiq Ahmed and his brother over their ties with Pakist
According to Times Navabharat, Atiq Ahmed and his gang had killed a relative of one of the assassins and they eliminated the gangster-politician to avenge that murder.
As per a report by Times Now, the assassins were small-time criminals who wanted to become famous by killing Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf.
It has also come to light that Sunny, Arun Maurya and Lavlesh Tiwari had previously gone to jail in different cases.
