Two days after the sensational murder of mafia don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf while under police escort, the UP cops are puzzled about the ‘mystery link’ among the three assailants.
Deciphering this common link remains the key to the investigation.
Sources in the UP Police say Lovelesh Tiwari and Mohit alias Sunny Singh probably first met in 2021 as undertrials in Banda district jail.
Lovelesh was arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act while Mohit was jail under the Arms Act.
After getting out on bail around the end of 2021, both remained in touch and came to Prayagraj. Here they also took odd jobs to meet the ends.
So far, the information obtained from the three suggests Mohit was more into criminal activities and had access to illegal firearms.
Sources say the third assailant Arun Maurya was lodged in Panipat jail in Haryana for a petty crime. There is still no clarity when and for what purpose did he move to Prayagraj.
It is still unclear when and how Lovelesh and Mohit got in touch with Arun.
Was it a co-incidence that three came together?
The audacity and precision with which the murders were committed indicates a proper briefing and also required training on how to kill to perfection.
The fact that the small-time criminals get access to Turkish-made pistols, each costing around Rs 6 lakh a piece, raises serious questions.
Hand-to-mouth assailants can no way have the money to procure the pistols. The question is who provided them?
All these points have given top cops to believe about the mystery man or else the common link between the three.
A senior police officer not willing to be quoted said circumstances under which this crime was committed, the perfect intel which the assailants had and the brilliant script of posing as journalists, all indicate of a genius’s planning.
It is highly unlikely that the three small-time assailants had the level of sophistication and courage to commit such sensational murders.
Surely, the common link between the three or the missing handler acted as their facilitator, motivator and logistics provider.
The challenge before the UP Police is to identify this common link.
Even if the argument of these assailants wanting to be a big name in the world of crime is taken a note of, there surely needs to be a godfather to the three who gave wings to their misplaced ambitions.
Atiq and Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction on April 15 night while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college for a check-up.
The brothers, both jailed in Prayagraj, were in handcuffs when they were killed in full view of camera crews around 10 pm.
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