Backlash over ‘breakdown in rule of law’ after former MP and brother gunned down live on TV in India

The killing of a former Indian MP Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf on live television has led to severe backlash against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by the opposition.

Ahmed was a member of India’s parliament and the Uttar Pradesh (UP) state legislative assembly. He had over 100 criminal cases registered against him, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and extortion, among others, according to the Indian Express.

Police records also showed that he headed a gang of 144 members in UP’s Prayagraj city.

UP police officials were escorting the two brothers for a mandatory medical checkup on Saturday night when they briefly stopped to talk to reporters. The three accused posed as journalists before killing the brothers at point-blank range using semi-automatic pistols.

Just days before, Ahmed’s son Asad and his aide were shot dead by UP police officials.

Footage showed a hand carrying a pistol pushing aside Ahmed’s white turban from behind with the nozzle and firing at his left temple.

The brutal executions in the presence of journalists and the police has snowballed into political criticism and drawn the ire of the opposition against the BJP state government led by hardline Hindu nationalist monk chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The state government has formed two Special Invetigation Teams (SIT) – one to probe the murders and the other to supervise the first team.

The brothers had been arrested in connection with the killing of Umesh Pal in February this year.

Umesh Pal was a key witness in the muder of state-level lawmaker Raju Pal who had defeated Atiq’s brother in a November 2004 by-election.

Opposition leaders, however, have attacked the UP government over the “breakdown of law and order” in the state and the manner in which the murders took place.

Former MP Kapil Sibal lashed out at the “art of elimination”.

Mr Sibal posed eight questions and asked why the two were being taken for a medical checkup at night in the presence of the media and how the three accused of the killings had surrendered.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who heads the Trinamool Congress Party expressed “shock” at “the brazen anarchy and total collapse of law and order in Uttar Pradesh”.

“It is shameful that perpetrators are now taking the law into their own hands, unfazed by the police and media presence. Such unlawful acts have no place in our constitutional democracy,” she tweeted.

Asaduddin Owaisi, a lawmaker from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party who is a vociferous BJP critic, said Mr Adityanath was responsible for the murders and demanded his resignation.

“The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is responsible for the murder of Atiq Ahmed and his brother, he should resign immediately,” he said.

“The Supreme Court should constitute a committee to investigate the entire matter. All the police officers who were present there should be suspended and Atiq’s son who is in jail should be given bail to attend the funeral.”

TMC MP Mahua Moitra accused the BJP of turning India into “a mafia republic”.

“I will say it here, I will say it abroad, I will say it everywhere because it is the truth,” she tweeted. “2 men in custody shot dead in front of a zillion policemen & cameras - this is the death of the rule of law.”

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said there were courts were to ensure criminals get the harshest punishment.

He added that “playing with law and order only gives birth to anarchy”.

Sanjay Raut, a member of a faction of the Shiv Sena party that opposes the BJP, told news agency ANI that the presence of the police raises questions on law and order.

“The thing is when his (Atiq’s) son was encountered earlier before this, we said that such encounters happen in Mumbai as well, but if there is a mafia in front of the medical college is getting killed that too in police custody, then it’s a big question on law and order,” he said.

The Ahmed brothers were buried amid heavy police deployment late on Sunday night. Only a few relatives of the deceased brothers and locals were allowed at the burial.

Both brothers had claimed their lives were in danger multiple times.

On 11 April, when Ahmed was being moved from Gujarat state’s Sabarmati jail to Prayagraj, he was heard telling journalists that he feared he would be killed on the way.

Earlier on 28 March, he had also moved India’s Supreme Court in a plea saying he feared he would be killed in a fake encounter.

The court had refused to grant him protection. “The state machinery will protect you,” the court was quoted as saying in oral observations reported on by legal portal LiveLaw.

He had subsequently moved a separate application before the chief judicial magistrate in Prayagraj for a hearing via videoconferencing. This application too was rejected by the court, reported The Wire.

Also on Monday, a case was filed in the Supreme Court seeking the constitution of an independent committee to inquire into the killings of the two brothers.

The plea also seeks an inquiry into 183 extra-judicial killings that have reportedly taken place in Uttar Pradesh since 2017, when the Adityanath government first came to power.