Atiq Ahmed's Killing: Tejashwi Yadav, Nitish Kumar strongly condemned the incident
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav today hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government over the murder of gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf under police escort.
Calling it a failure of law and order, Nitish Kumar said killing the criminals is never a solution and the manner in which they were killed has saddened him.
"Eliminating crime does not mean killing criminals. The court is there to provide justice," Mr Yadav said.
"The police should have taken care of their security. It's sad that they were shot dead at point-blank range while being taken for a medical check-up," he said.
Tejashwi Yadav also strongly condemned the incident and said the killing of the gangster and his brother seemed "scripted".
"Even the assassins of a Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) were put under a court trial. What happened in UP was not the funeral procession of Atiq Ahmed, but that of law," Mr Yadav said.
"This has been done for cheap publicity. The incident seemed scripted," he said.
Opposition parties have stepped up their attack on the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government over the daring murder.
"I am shocked by the brazen anarchy and total collapse of law & order in Uttar Pradesh. It is shameful that perpetrators are now taking the law in their own hands, unfazed by the police and media presence. Such unlawful acts have no place in our constitutional democracy," Mamata Banerjee had tweeted earlier.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the state is "in the grip of jungle raj".
The Chief Minister came under direct attack from Hyderabad politician Asaduddin Owaisi as well, who demanded his resignation as well as called for a Supreme Court-monitored probe.
Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead by three men posing as journalists in Prayagraj on Saturday evening - days after the gangster's son Asad was killed in an alleged encounter
Flanked by several policemen, the men, who were handcuffed, collapsed right there, showed a video from the scene.
Lovelesh Tewari, Sunny Singh, and Arun Maurya, the three men who shot and killed Atiq and Ashraf have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
According to the police, they have said that they wanted to make a name for themselves by eliminating Ahmed's gang.
Yogi Adityanath has asked a three-member judicial inquiry committee to submit a report on the killings in two months.
Atiq Ahmed had more than 100 criminal cases against him, including murder, kidnapping and extortion. He was recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case.
Ahmed was also a five-term MLA and a former Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha MP. He was recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case.
His brother Ashraf was also a gangster and had several cases against him.