Atiq Ahmed was shot dead by three assailants. (File)
Three men who helped the main accused in the murder of gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother in pretending to be a reporter have been detained by the police in Uttar Pradesh, the police said on Thursday.
The killers, Lovelesh Tiwari, Arun Maurya and Sunny Singh, had trailed the arrested gangster as journalists for an entire day before shooting him in front of television cameras and dozens of policemen on Saturday.
Three men, who work for a local news website, showed the ropes of reporting to Tiwari and helped him buy a camera, the police said.
They have been detained from the railway station in Uttar Pradesh's Banda by the Special Investigation Team probing the case, they added.
The Uttar Pradesh Police also conducted raids in the search for Shaista Parveen, Atiq Ahmed's wife, in Kaushambi on Wednesday.
"Raids were conducted in search of Shaista Parveen, wife of gangster Atiq Ahmed. A search operation was conducted after receiving information about some criminals hiding. The operation lasted for about 2 hours. A drone camera was also used in the operation. However, the operation did not prove successful today," senior police officer Samar Bahadur told news agency ANI.
Days after Atiq Ahmed's son Asad was killed in an encounter in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi, the mafia-turned-politician and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were killed on Saturday while being taken for a medical examination in Prayagraj.
All three attackers surrendered after shooting more than 20 times at Ahmed and his brother.
Atiq Ahmed was accused in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal in 2005, as well as in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the BSP leader's murder, in February this year.