Former MP and his brother shot dead on live TV in India

A former Indian MP convicted of kidnapping and facing murder and assault charges has been murdered along with his brother in a dramatic shooting broadcast live on TV.

Atiq Ahmed, a former MP who was serving a life sentence in jail, and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were in police custody outside a hospital in Prayagraj, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, when three men fired more than 20 rounds of bullets at them from close range as they took questions from reporters. The two brothers died on the spot.

Police officer Ramit Sharma said the three assailants came on motorcycles posing as journalists, and were carrying camera equipment, a microphone bearing the logo of a television network and fake journalist IDs.

The assailants were named as Lavlesh Tiwari, 22, Mohit Puraney, 23, and Arun Kumar Maurya, 18. The men reportedly told police they had been following the Ahmed brothers for two days, since they came into custody, and wanted to carry out the killings to gain notoriety.

One of the assailants was shot in the hand during the retaliatory police firing and a police constable suffered a bullet injury in the attack. No action has been taken so far against the team of 20 police officers who were in charge of the Ahmed brothers.

Atiq Ahmed, his brother and their wider family were notorious gansters in the Uttar Pradesh criminal underworld, accused of running a crime syndicate embroiled in murder and extortion, and the former politician had more than 100 different cases filed against him, including assault and murder. He was jailed for life in 2019 after being convicted of orchestrating a kidnapping while in prison.

The Ahmed brothers had been in police custody relating to the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal, who had been a key witness in the case of another killing they were implicated in.

Since Adityanath came to power in 2017, the Uttar Pradesh police have a notorious record of carrying out extra-judicial encounter shootings of criminals who they claim attempted to make an escape from custody or who fired on officers first. In the past five years, there have been almost 9,000 police shootings in Uttar Pradesh, with more than 170 fatalities, and Muslims and Dalits, the lowest caste of Hindus who used to called untouchables, disproportionately targeted.

Adityanath said a judicial investigation had been ordered into the killings of the brothers and a report submitted to the home ministry. The internet was cut in certain areas, with large groups banned from gathering over fears the issue could escalate into protest or violence.