The shocking revelation was made during the interrogation of Mohammed Atif Muzzafar and Danish, who were arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police soon after the train blast on March 7, NIA officials said today.
The case is now being probed by the NIA.
Atif and Danish were claimed to have told their interrogators they had practised firing a pistol on the banks of the Ganga in Kanpur.
After the practice, the duo along with Saifullah, who was killed in a 12-hour encounter with Uttar Pradesh Police on March 8 at Thakurganj near Lucknow, rode a motorcycle in the lanes of Kanpur to look for a live target. It was there that they spotted 62-year-old Ramesh Shukla riding a bicycle.
Despite having retired two years ago, Shukla’s passion for teaching continued and he used to take extra classes for students at a school.
Atif and Danish took out their pistols and fired a shot each at the unsuspecting victim, killing him on the spot. The ‘practical test’ accomplished, Saifullah dropped them out of Kanpur.
In their statement, the duo said they were “happy” the next day reading about the incident in newspapers and complimented each other for “successfully clearing” the practical test, the officials said.
The NIA has shared its investigation report with the UP police. One of the bullets lodged in the body of the deceased teacher has been preserved as evidence.
The central anti-terror probe agency has now asked the UP police to match the bullethead with the pistol recovered by the agency at the instance of Atif and Danish, they said.
Ten people were injured when a low-intensity IED exploded on board the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train near Jabdi railway station in Shujapur district of Madhya Pradesh on March 7 this year.
PTI