NEW DELHI, Apr 22: The Uttar Pradesh minister Dharampal Singh on Saturday claimed that the opposition parties got gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf killed, fearing that the duo would reveal their secrets.
Atiq Ahmad (60) and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction on the night of April 15 while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a medical check-up. They were brought to Prayagraj from Gujarat and Bareilly prisons for interrogation in connection with the killing of Umesh Pal and his two police security guards earlier this year.
“The truth is that the opposition is involved in getting Atiq killed. Some serious secrets were about to be revealed, that’s why the opposition got him murdered,” said Dharampal Singh, the state animal husbandry and dairy development minister, said.
The three assailants of Atiq had posed as media persons to commit the crime. They were arrested by the police after the incident. The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a three-member judicial inquiry commission to probe the matter.
(Manas Dasgupta)
