Police may opt for polygraph test of Atiq’s killers

Lucknow: Struggling to get to the bottom of the murder mystery, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh police might go for the polygraph test of three assailants who killed Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf on April 15 night.

The SIT held a discussion with the members of the Judicial Commission to chalk out the strategy to unravel the real reason for the killing of Atiq. The question that plagues police officers’ minds is who are main faces behind the killings and how these three shooters got such sophisticated weapons. “The SIT has interrogated the three assailants — Lavlesh, Sunny and Arun — for 18 hours. Initially they were interrogated separately, but on Friday questions were asked in a joint interrogation. They have given their story which we cannot accept as true,” a senior police official said here.

He said there have been frequent contradictions in the statements of the shooters as they are not able to tell the clear reason for the intention of killing and how they got the weapons. “One of the shooters, Sunny, claimed that Jitendta Gogi had given him the weapon, but we do not know if this is true or not. The truth will come to light only in a detailed enquiry,” the officer said.

Police sources said that during interrogation Sunny claimed that he met Jitendra Gogi in Delhi during almost two years back. He also carried out minor crimes in Delhi on the instruction of Gogi. After every crime he used to go back to his home town in Hamirpur. This way he was able to stay away from the police investigations.

“Sunny claims that Gogi had given him sophisticated pistols to carry out the crimes and after the death of Gogi he did not return the pistols,” a police officer said, adding that this version of Sunny has a loophole because why Gogi will give him three such costly pistols.

With no option left, the police may go for the polygraph test and seek a permission from the court regarding this. Experts say that police also need a permission from the three shooters before carrying out the test.

One of India’s top gangster-turned-politicians Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were killed inside a hospital in Prayagraj on Saturday night. The killing was caught live on television channels as Atiq and Ashraf were about to speak to the media.