Where is Ashraf Ahmed’s sealed letter to the UP Chief Minister and CJ?

Barely two weeks ago while speaking to the media from a prison van, slain ‘gangster’ Ashraf Ahmed, shot dead in front of TV cameras at Prayagraj along with his brother Atiq Ahmed on Saturday night, had claimed he had been told he would be killed.

A very senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh, he said, had held out the threat that he would be brought out of prison on some pretext and killed.

A video of the statement has since then gone viral on social media. The video, the veracity of which has not been independently verified, has been shown on some TV channels as well and can be viewed here:

Refusing to name the official, the gangster had asserted that if he were to be killed, the sealed letter would be delivered to the UP CM and the Chief Justice of the High Court. All the details of the conspiracy were there in the letter, he had claimed.

While talking to the media at Bareilly after returning from Prayagraj on the night of March 29, the gangster had denied his involvement in any murder and had wondered how he could be accused of killing someone when he has been in prison for the past three years.

“Even the chief minister of UP has been subjected to false cases; he would certainly understand my plight and pain,” he asserted. In prison he was under constant CCTV surveillance and whenever he met members of his family or lawyers, officers of the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) were always present. “How could I then have planned and masterminded a murder outside,” he had asked.

The sensational killing in cold blood, recorded by the media on TV, has left several questions unanswered.

1. A report in The Telegraph quotes police sources as saying that slain Atiq Ahmed had promised to disclose the name of an arms dealer operating in India and Pakistan and who had links with politicians. In return he had demanded that he and his family be treated well in prison. Has he then been silenced?

2. The Medical Superintendent of the Allahabad Hospital, media reports say, has told the media that the hospital was not informed that the two gangsters were being brought for medical examination till 10 minutes before they reached.

3. There is still no explanation why the police decided to take the gangsters to the hospital at Prayagraj at that late hour, after 10 pm.

4. There is no explanation why the police van stopped outside the hospital and did not drive up to the hospital despite adequate parking space inside. It was while walking, handcuffed together, that mediamen started talking to them and when they were shot.

5. One of the firearms used is said to be a Turkish revolver, banned in India and made illegally in Pakistan. The revolver, claim various media reports, costs anywhere between Rs four to seven lakhs. How did the assailants secure the expensive firearm?