Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijay Sngh has raised some serious questions over the murder of mafia don Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in police custody while demanding an inquiry by the CBI, the ED and the Income Tax Department to find out the mafia don’s connections with politicians, officers and businessmen.

Speaking to media persons at the MP Congress headquarters here on Saturday, Singh pointed out that one of the Atiq’s killers, Lavlesh Tiwari, had been living in Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh in 2021. He demanded to know from Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra whether he had his patronage and protection in Balaghat.

Digvijay Singh said it is very curious why Vikas Dubey had also chosen to take refuge in Madhya Pradesh before surrendering in Ujjain.

Dubey was another dreaded gangster of Uttar Pradesh who was killed by the UP Police in an encounter on 10 July 2020 allegedly when he had tried to escape from police custody while being taken from MP to UP after his surrender.

The former chief minister of MP said the responsibility of Atiq’s murder was on the Uttar Pradesh Police, as the don and his brother were shot dead while in police custody right in front of the eyes of police personnel.

The senior Congress leader claimed that he had learnt that Atiq had carried out more acts of crime against Muslims than against Hindus. He said though the head of the mafia has been killed, the mafia is still alive and kicking. Singh demanded that the entire mafia must be wiped out and the CBI, ED and IT must thoroughly probe Atiq’s connections with politicians, officers and businessmen.

Singh also raised the Pulwama issue, saying whenever he tries to say something on it or ask any questions related to it, the entire troll army of the BJP starts attacking him.

Singh said this in reference to a recent interview by former Governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and senior BJP leader Satya Pal Malik, who had claimed in the interview that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had asked him to ‘stay quiet’ and ‘not say anything’ over the issue, when he had told them the Pulwama attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a bomb attack on 14 February 2019, had occurred due to the government’s mistake and intelligence failure.