Atiq murder accused: Banda recalls boy next door who often got into trouble, left town week ago for ‘a job’

A decade later, Rohit returned to the city — he had become a sadhu with matted hair, a flowing beard and sandalwood paste on the forehead. He lived in an ashram in Jabalpur.

A photo of three men; (L-R) Arun Maurya, Sunny Purane and Lavlesh Tiwari, who opened fire at gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf while they were being taken for a medical checkup in Prayagraj. (PTI Photo)

A fortnight ago, Yagnya’s third son, Luvlesh, who too had failed his first-year BA exams in a Lucknow college a few years ago, approached a shopkeeper in Kyotara Mohalla, a low-income colony where the family lives, seeking work as he had been jobless for a long time.

And a week ago, Luvlesh left home, telling his family and friends that he was going on a job hunt. Last Saturday, they watched in horror, on live TV, Luvlesh pumping multiple bullets into Atiq Ahmed as the gangster-turned politician was being escorted by police.

“It is all about the company you keep. Luvlesh was a well-behaved boy who got into the wrong company. Rohit, I have heard, was taken in by the priest of the temple where he slept the night after he left home,” said Sona Singh Gautam, Yagnya’s former landlord in Kyotara Mohalla. It was in Gautam’s house that Rohit had tried to steal money.

The Tiwari family now lives in a two-room tenement, right across Gautam’s house. It is locked and the family is said to be missing.

Atiq and Ashraf were shot dead Saturday (April 15) night at the gate of Motilal Nehru Zonal Hospital (Colvin), where the Prayagraj police were taking them for medical examination.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw Luvlesh firing those bullets like a sharpshooter. People have seen him take baby steps in these streets,” Gautam said.

Residents who know the family said Yagnya struggled financially but worked hard to keep the family afloat. His hope, they said, was that his children would study well and pull the family out of poverty.

Yagnya’s second son, Mohit, who is a priest in Lucknow, is currently the only earning member among his sons. His youngest, Dev, is pursuing a BTech course from a Banda college.

The pandemic increased the family’s hardship. “Schools were closed, so uncle had no job for a long time. The family couldn’t even pay rent. Only about a year ago, he got his job back and began repaying debts. Before leaving a week ago, Luvlesh told me the family is still to pay rent for the last four months,” said Shivam Dwivedi, Luvlesh’s friend and neighbour.

People gather at the crime scene where Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead while being taken for medical checkup to a hospital, in Prayagraj, Sunday, April 16, 2023. (PTI Photo/File)

He says he is unable to understand why Luvlesh turned to crime. “He was attached to his family and wanted to help his father… In between, he had also gone out for a job but returned after a year… He was always there when anyone needed help… He even led a candle march some years ago, demanding justice for a local boy who had died in suspicious circumstances,” Dwivedi said.

There’s a large wall-size poster at the square right outside Kyotara Mohalla. Put up by a local group that calls itself “Brahman Samaj”, the poster announced a “Vishal Tiranga Yatra” on January 26, 2023 – Luvlesh’s photograph is among the over two dozen people who organised it.

Residents say he was also active with Bajrang Dal briefly – his Facebook profile, where he calls himself Maharaj and has posted photographs while praying in temples, declares him as “Jila Sah Suraksha Pramukh at Bajrang Dal”. A local Bajrang Dal leader, however, denied he was an office-bearer.

“His problem was that he had a short temper and a tendency to get into fights,” Dwivedi said.

This landed him in trouble in 2020. In March that year, police sources said, after one of his friends passed lewd comments at a minor girl who rebuked them, Luvlesh verbally abused and slapped her.

On a complaint from the girl’s family, Luvlesh was booked by police under the POCSO Act and ended up in jail. “His father was so upset that he stopped speaking to him. He did not even have money to hire a lawyer and bail him out. Ultimately, residents pitched in and bailed him out,” Gautam said.

According to the Kotwali Nagar SHO, Luvlesh spent more than a month in jail.

Residents said once he stepped out of jail, he began to keep company that his father didn’t approve of.

A friend recalled how at a wedding recently, Luvlesh fired two celebratory shots from a country-made pistol that someone had brought, and both were kicked out of the ceremony.

According to local police, Luvlesh has four cases against him – three registered at Kotwali Nagar police station (including the one that landed him in jail) and one at Baberu police station. Most are for minor offences such as abusive online behaviour, assaulting people over minor issues and holding liquor in excess of permissible limit.

“There was nothing that would make us take note of this boy. All police stations are full of such FIRs. Young men in these parts often get into such minor trouble. We began scanning his cases after the (Prayagraj) shooting,” Banda Nagar Circle Officer Gajendra Gautam said.

Luvlesh’s former landlord, Sona Singh Gautam, claims he bumped into Lovelesh when he was leaving town last week. “I asked him, ‘Where are you going all dressed up’. He told me with a smile, ‘Out of station for a job.’ I didn’t have the faintest idea that this was the job,” Gautam said.