Two Atiq, Ashraf shooters used 4 SIM cards, third avoided phone: SIT
The three men involved in the double murder of Atiq Ahmad and his brother Khalid Azeem had used multiple SIM cards to communicate, but one of them had avoided using a phone altogether. The police have recovered two mobile phones and are investigating how the trio communicated with each other before the incident. The three assailants had also submitted counterfeit Aadhaar cards to stay at a hotel. The police have added the IPC section for committing fraud to the FIR lodged against them.
While two of the three men who shot dead Atiq Ahmad and his brother Khalid Azeem (Ashraf) were using two SIM cards each, the third shooter wasn’t using any phone to avoid detection, SIT officials probing the double murder case said.
The police had recovered two mobile phones from a hotel room after grilling Lavlesh Tiwari, Sunny Singh and Arun Kumar Maurya—the three accused—for four days till April 23.
The officials said Sunny wasn’t using any mobile phone in a bid to avoid detection. They were now investigating how the trio communicated with each other prior to reaching Prayagraj, where they stayed at a hotel near Prayagraj Junction.
The police officials said with the help of IMEI numbers of the recovered mobile phones, it was found out that Lavlesh and Arun were using two SIM cards each.
The police found out that Arun used his phone till April 9 before switching it off while Lavlesh switched off his phone on April 12. The duo destroyed their SIM cards before reaching Prayagraj, police officials said.
Atiq and Ashraf were murdered in full media glare in Prayagraj on April 15 night.
The four numbers that were used by Lavlesh and Arun were now being scanned to find out who the shooters were in contact with prior to the incident.
It might be mentioned that no involvement of any fourth person could yet be found in the murders.
Meanwhile, officials said that the IPC section for committing fraud had been added to the FIR lodged against the three assailants. This was so as the trio had submitted counterfeit Aadhaar cards to stay at the hotel.
Asad’s friend named accused in Umesh Pal murder case
The Dhumanganj police on Friday named Asad’s friend Atin Zafar an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. They said Atin was arrested from Lucknow after it was found that he used Asad’s ATM card on his behest on February 24 in a bid to mislead the police. Atin was also carrying Asad’s mobile which he hid in his flat in Lucknow. Atin Zafar is a resident of the Kasari Masari area and lived with Asad in his flat in Lucknow. His father Zafar Ullah was also an associate of Atiq Ahmad and arrested and sent to jail for abduction and assault of realtor Mohit Agarwal in the Deoria jail.
