Former Lok Sabha member Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were murdered on April 15 by assailants pretending to be newsreaders. According to unidentified reports, the Allahabad District Court remanded the three attackers who killed Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed to judicial jail for a period of fourteen days. 

Former Lok Sabha member Ahmed and his brother were slain on April 15 by assailants acting as television reporters while they were being transported to an Allahabad hospital for a required medical examination. The two gunmen and an accomplice were reportedly captured by police at the scene of the crime. Luvlesh Tiwari, Mohit alias Sunny of Hamirpur, and Arun Kumar Maurya of Kasganj have been recognized as one of them.

In connection with the murder of Umesh Pal, the key witness in the 2005 assassination of Raju Pal, a lawmaker from the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), Atiq, who was facing over 100 criminal cases, was transferred from Sabarmati prison in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad to Naini prison in Allahabad. On March 28, Atiq asked the Supreme Court to provide him and the other members of his family who were suspected of being involved in the murder of Umesh Pal protection. He also contested being sent from Sabarmati to Allahabad prison for the same case’s inquiry.

Atiq had expressed worry to the Supreme Court that the Uttar Pradesh police would kill him in a staged encounter. The Supreme Court, however, rejected Atiq’s appeal, noting that Atiq was already in police custody and would be kept safe by the State’s machinery.

Notably, his son Asad and friend Gulam were slain in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Jhansi two days before Atiq died and 14 days after the Supreme Court denied his motion.