Questions Fire Back After Daylight Murder of Mukhtar Ansari Aide

Lucknow: The broad daylight murder of gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva, a close aide of jailed gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari accused of killing BJP leaders Brahm Dutt Dwivedi and Krishna Nand Rai, outside the SC-ST Court in Lucknow on Wednesday has triggered a volley of questions.

Former IPS officers have alleged that the murder was ‘planned’ and demanded a thorough probe.

“The presence of, at least, half-a-dozen policemen around him [Jeev] when the shots were fired raises so many questions like in the previous encounters,” former Uttar Pradesh (UP) director general of police Vibhuti Narain Rai, who exposed the May 22, 1987, Hashimpura custodial killings, told Newsclick.

According to Prakhar Mishra, who witnessed Jeeva’s murder and is a lawyer in the Lucknow Civil Court, the gangster was escorted by five to six cops.

“Nobody came to rescue him even 20 minutes after the shooting. He was profusely bleeding and crying for help,” Mishra told the media. 

“The shootout highlighted that the police and administration must work on a war footing to ensure security to courts. However, instant justice will not serve the purpose,” he added.

On the “Thok Denge (We will kill criminals) policy and CM Yogi Adityanath’s statement in Assembly that the “Mafia would be made to bite the dust”, Rai said, “This won’t stop until police reforms and basic modification are done. Trigger-happy cops who think they have licence to kill people in the name of encounters will not stop as they have become subservient to politicians.”

Such shootouts and previous encounters in police custody “expose the so-called law and order in the state. Encounters also occurred during my tenure, but they were not so brazen. The police were not so communally prejudiced,” Rai alleged. 

Jeeva (48) was being taken to a hearing in a 2015 attempt-to-murder case when a man dressed as a lawyer fired at him around 3.50 pm. Jeeva was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead upon arrival.

Jeeva, a native of Muzaffarnagar district, was convicted in the 1997 murder of Dwivedi but acquitted in the 2005 murder of Rai.

The assailant, Vijay Yadav, told the police that an unknown person had promised Rs 20 lakh to eliminate Jeeva. 

According to the post-mortem report, Jeeva’s body had 16 entry and exit wounds, including 12 on his torso and four on his limbs, suggesting he was shot 8 times. Newsclick has copies of the first information report and the autopsy report.

“Criminals who allegedly opposed people in power are being strategically eliminated through extra-judicial killings in favour of the criminals supposed to be close to the power,” former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur alleged.

Similar questions were raised on the murder of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf at point-blank range on live TV in police custody when they were being taken for a “medical examination” to Colvin Hospital, Prayagraj, two months ago. 

After the shots were fired, three men posing as journalists quickly surrendered and were taken into custody.

Describing it as an “audacious and filmy-style” incident, former IPS officer SR Darapuri, who is also the vice-president of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties in UP, told Newsclick that Jeeva’s killing has “blown the state government’s tall claims on law and order to pieces”.

“Is this law and order CM Yogi Adityanath boasted about? The incident has exposed the government’s tall claims about law and order in the state,” he said. “People no longer trust courts. They deliver justice independently and don’t wait for the court’s order.”

USE OF FOREIGN WEAPONS

A Czech-made .357 bore Magnum Alfa series revolver was used to kill Jeeva. The former top cops Newsclick spoke with asked how could Yadav possess the revolver as he belongs to a farmer’s family of Jaunpur and isn’t connected to any gang.

In the Atiq-Ashraf murders, banned Turkish Girsan and Zigana 9mm pistols that cost, at least, Rs 6-Rs 7 lakh were used. Questions were raised about how the attackers could procure and afford such expensive banned pistols in India, whether they were smuggled and who masterminded the killings.