Key Points
Lucknow: Concluding that the killing of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in police custody could not be a result of a premeditated conspiracy of the state or police, the judicial commission constituted by the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government to probe the incident has given a clean chit to the police...
According to its 191-page report, the police officers decision of not shooting at the three attackers, who shot Atiq and Ashraf dead while they were being escorted for a medical check-up on 15 April 2023, was correct...
Keeping in view the role of police, it cannot be said that the police resorted to negligence while their transportation (on two occasions from the Sabarmati jail, Ahmedabad to Naini central jail in Prayagraj, and from Naini central jail to court to Naini central jail to the Dhoomanganj police station) or while taking them from the Dhoomanganj police station to the Motilal Nehru hospital on the intervening night of 14-15 April, 2023, the report read...
The commission also said in the report that the Uttar Pradesh police regulations, jail manual and medical manual have provisions for institutions for medical examination of accused persons, prisoners under trial and convicts, but there is no homogenous and contemporary structure or institution to provide care for such persons in custody...
The commission further noted that while the state jail manual has provisions for establishing hospitals in jails and appointing medical officers and other employees in these hospitals, and the medical manual gives accreditation to jail hospitals and police hospitals as facilities that fulfil special purpose, these regulations should be honestly followed as far as possible...
