The three shooters, Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh and Lavlesh Tiwari, who were arrested on April 15 after shooting Ateeq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, are currently in police custody and have revealed numerous secrets.
On April 21, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the death of the mafia don Atiq Ahmed, and his brother Ashraf Ahmed revealed that one of their assailants, Arun Maurya, was a member of the Whatsapp group ‘Sher-e-Atiq’ made by Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad Ahmed. The revelation is said to have come while the SIT was interrogating the three shooters, Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh, and Lovelesh Tiwari.
According to the reports, the Whatsapp group was formed to glorify Atiq Ahmed. Inside the Whatsapp group, the photos and videos of the feared gangster and stories glorifying his power and clout were circulated regularly.
This group aimed to target politically aware youth of Prayagraj and encourage them to work for Atiq.
The Whatsapp group was founded by none other than Atiq Ahmed’s son, Asad Ahmed, who was killed in retaliatory firing by the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force on April 13.
The WhatsApp group was formed prior to Umesh Pal’s murder. The group used to exchange old videos of Mafia Atiq Ahmed and anecdotes of how he used to terrorise people.
This group was administered by Asad Ahmed and included 56 members from 14 districts. The Sher-e-Atiq group had Asad’s friends and members of the Atiq Ahmed gang. A few days before the Umesh Pal murder, the WhatsApp group was deleted.
After ‘Sher-e-Atiq’ was closed down, Maurya joined another group called Gang-90. Through this group (Gang-90), he met co-accused Sunny and Lavlesh. Gang-90 was named after the RTO registration number 90 of Banda.
The fact that Arun was a member of a group formed by Asad demonstrates that he was known to the gangster.
On April 20, in order to investigate the murder of Atiq Ahmed & his brother Ashraf, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) recreated the crime scene.
The Uttar Pradesh police are constantly searching for possible hideouts to nab Atiq’s wife, Shaista Praveen. On April 19, the police conducted a search operation in Kaushambi which lasted for two hours but was not successful. The police have declared Shaista as ‘most wanted’ because she is one of the accused in the murder of Umesh Pal, the sole witness of the Raju Pal murder case.
