Shooter Lovelesh Tiwari Had Met Atiq Ahmed In Prayagraj, Wanted To Join His Gang: Police

While being interrogated by the police, one of the prime accused Lovelesh Tiwari disclosed that he was greatly influenced by Atiq's power and desired to become a part of his gang.

New Delhi: Shooter Lovelesh Tiwari, one of the prime accused in the Atiq and Ashraf murder case, told police that he had met earlier Atiq in Prayagraj.

While being interrogated by the police, he disclosed that he was greatly influenced by Atiq's power and desired to become a part of his gang. Consequently, he visited the gangster at his Chakiya office in Prayagraj, where he also met his son Ali Ahmed. However, for some unknown reason, Lovelesh was unable to join Atiq's gang during the said meeting.

Last week, Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men– Lovelesh Tiwari (22), Mohit alias Sunny Puraney (23), and Arun Kumar Maurya (18) – posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction, while police were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup.

Following the incident, a case was registered against the three assailants under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, Arms Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act. The arms used in the crime were also recovered from the spot.

According to Lovelesh's statement to the SIT (Special Investigation Team), when he met Atiq, he was sitting on a sofa in the Chakiya office with his men surrounding him with guns, while big businessmen and traders sat on the ground in fear in front of him.

Lovelesh admitted that he was in awe of Atiq's power and dominance.

All three suspects confessed during police interrogation that they had concealed their mobile phones in a hotel. It was revealed that these three individuals had been staying at a hotel in Prayagraj since April 13th, where they planned the entire scheme by visiting the site one by one. All three were detained on the same day.

The police acted on their information and seized two mobile phones from their hotel room, although the SIM cards were not found inside them.

On Wednesday, the Prayagraj court sent three accused shooters to four days of police custody. They were brought to Prayagraj from Pratapgarh jail and produced before the court of chief judicial magistrate amid heavy police presence to seek remand for questioning.