Four suspects visited rented flat in posh apartment complex

CAR IN WHICH THEY REACHED LKO RECOVERED FROM PARKING LOT OF THE SAME COMPLEX; SUSPECTS EXECUTED THE CRIME ON A SPECIFIC TIP-OFF

LUCKNOW: The four suspected assailants briefly visited a flat taken on rent by an Azamgarh resident at the posh Rohtas Plumeria residential apartment complex alongside Shaheed Path in Vibhuti Khand before and after the shootout in which Ajit Singh, the alleged henchman of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, was shot dead on Wednesday night, said police investigators privy to the development here on Friday.

Ajit had succumbed to his injuries after suffering 23 gunshots while his associate Mohar Singh sustained one bullet wound in his right leg when motorcycle-borne assailants opened indiscriminate fire on them near Kathauta crossing under Vibhuti Khand police station limits in Lucknow.

A police official privy to the investigation said the Azamgarh resident was found missing from his rented flat number E-1303 while his relative and servant had been taken into custody for interrogation.

He said the two who were taken into custody claimed that four youths were staying in the same flat for the past few years.

He said a red car used by the assailants to reach Lucknow had been recovered from the parking lot of the same apartment complex on Thursday night and it was registered in the name of another Azamgarh resident.

The official said the investigation done so far revealed that the four assailants reached Kamta bus stand on two motorcycles after committing the crime. He also said they abandoned the motorcycles at the Kamta bus stand and got into the same car to reach the apartment complex and, thereafter, they went elsewhere. He said the car was visible in the CCTV footage of the suspected assailants in which they were seen reaching the bus stand on motorcycle and leaving from there.

The flat resident’s relative and servant revealed that the four suspected assailants had come to Lucknow from Azamgarh on the day of the incident, the official added. He said two of the four suspects visited the flat while two people went somewhere else.

Flat owned by city builder’s wife

The investigators stated that the flat was owned by the wife of a prominent city builder, but it was on rent for the past five years. They said the builder owned another commercial building nearby that houses multiple clubs, bars, lounges and restaurants.

One suspect was limping

They said the two people taken into the custody revealed that one of the four suspects was limping when he returned to the apartment complex on Wednesday night as if he had suffered some injury in his right leg. They said the same person apparently suffered a bullet wound in the retaliatory firing opened by Ajit Singh’s associate Mohar Singh during the shootout.

Two of the four assailants identified

Another police official said one of the four shooters was identified as Varanasi’s Girdhari Sharma, who has over 20 criminal cases against him and carries a ₹1 lakh reward on his arrest. He said Ajit Singh’s associate Mohar Singh had claimed to have identified Sharma among the assailants.

The second shooter was apparently Shiv Prakash Yadav against whom Ajit Singh had lodged an FIR of extortion and life threat at Azamgarh Kotwali police station on March 25, 2019, the officer said. He also said one of the two motorcycles, having blood stains and recovered from the Kamta bus stand, was registered in the name of Yadav.

Specific tip-off about Ajit Singh’s movement

The official said the modus operandi of the shooters suggested that such an incident could be carried out only after a proper recce to know the target’s daily routine or on a specific tip-off about his movement.

“In this particular case, the specific tip-off from somebody very close to Ajit Singh was suspected as the shooters landed in Lucknow only a few hours before the crime and could not collect such specific information about the target’s movement (otherwise),” he explained.

“For the tip-off, the role of Ajit Singh’s girlfriend, who was present in his SUV at the time of the incident, and his accomplice Mohar Singh is also under the scanner. The duo survived the shootout,” he said.