Three friends of Lovelesh Tiwari, the main accused in the sensational killing of gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed, were detained by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda, the police said on Thursday.

“The trio were caught at Banda railway station,” officials said. The SIT team has also reached Hamirpur and Kasganj to conduct the further probe, they added.

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Uttar Pradesh Police conducted raids in search of Shaista Parveen, wife of Atiq Ahmed, in Kaushambi on Wednesday.

“Raids were conducted in search of Shaista Parveen, wife of gangster Atiq Ahmed. A search operation was conducted after receiving information about some criminals hiding. The operation lasted for about 2 hours. A drone camera was also used in the operation. However, the operation did not prove successful today,” Samar Bahadur, ASP, Kaushambi told ANI.

Days after Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad was killed in an encounter in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi, the mafia-turned-politician and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were killed on April 5 night while being taken for a medical examination in Prayagraj.

Atiq Ahmed was accused in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal in 2005, as well as in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the BSP leader’s murder, in February this year.

As many as three people were arrested and identified as Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh and Lovelesh Tiwari.

All three attackers were apprehended at the scene after they voluntarily turned themselves in. They have been kept in the custody of the police and questioned.

A CJM court in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on Wednesday remanded gangster Atiq Ahmed’s killers to four-day police custody.

This comes after the Special Investigation Team filed an application in the court seeking remand for questioning for all three accused.

They were earlier sent to 14-day judicial custody by the district court on April 16.

During the police remand, the police will question the accused about the weapon they used to kill Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf on April 15 night, where did they get the weapon from and who gave it to them.