No, Atiq Ahmed's lawyer Vijay Mishra's home in Prayagraj was not attacked with a crude bomb

Context

On the night of April 15, 2023, gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead by three youths posing as journalists. The police were taking Atiq and Ahmed for a routine medical check-up in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh when the three assailants shot them dead. The three youths surrendered immediately to the police. According to The Indian Express, lawyer Vijay Mishra said on April 18 that a letter in a sealed envelope written by his client Atiq Ahmad was to be sent to the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud in the event of his death. Vijay Mishra added that he did not have the envelope or know the letter's contents and that "some other person" was sending it as instructed.

On April 18, 2023, a video started circulating on social media, including Twitter and Koo, showing a low-intensity explosion with smoke coming from a house in what appears to be a residential area. In the video, one can hear some panicked voices in the background. Some users shared the video claiming it shows an attack on Ahmed’s lawyer Vijay Mishra’s house. Some even claimed the attack was linked to the letter mentioned by Vijay Mishra. Some preliminary reports from news outlets, including CNN News 18, also stated the bomb blast occurred at his house.

In Fact

A video report by The Indian Express confirmed that the viral video was recorded on April 18 near the residence of one Dayashankar Mishra—another lawyer who also represented Atiq Ahmed— and not at lawyer Vijay Mishra’s house. The Hindu reported the same day that the police said that crude bombs were hurled in the Katra locality of Prayagraj around 2:30 p.m. The report said that according to Ram Mohan Rai, station house officer of Colonelganj Police Station, Dayashankar Mishra was not the target of the attack. The crude bombs were hurled at one of his neighbor's houses "due to personal enmity of two youths in Katra locality."

On the same day, ANI UP/Uttarakhand tweeted a video of a man running away from the explosion site in a bylane. A statement from Ramit Sharma, the Prayagraj Police Commissioner said that a man named Harshit Sonkar hurled the bombs due to "some conflict between him Akash Singh Chhotu Ranu and Raunak Yadav." The police officer also refuted the claim the attack was on Dayashankar Mishra. He said, "The incident occurred near the residence of Dayashankar Mishra. Rumors that the attack was on Mishra are false."

According to Hindustan Times, the attack occurred in Gobar Gali of Katra. Prashant Kumar, special director general (law and order), also refuted the claim that the attack was on Dayashankar Mishra and called the incident the result of a dispute between two parties. The report added that the forensic team conducted an investigation when the police reached the scene after the videos went viral. No one was injured in the incident, and it happened in a bylane near Dayashankar Mishra's house.

The Prayagraj police also tweeted a video on April 19 in which deputy commissioner of police Deepak Bhuker stated that based on the investigation, the claim that the attack was to target Dayashankar Mishra is “baseless and false.”

A journalist who reported on the explosion for a news website, but did not wish to be identified, told Logically facts that the bombs were not hurled at Dayashankar Mishra's house but in the same locality. This also rules out the claim that Atiq Ahmed's other lawyer Vijay Mishra was targeted in an attack.

However, despite the police investigation, Dayashankar Mishra has claimed the attack was an attempt to scare him from pursuing the case of his clients Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed. “I was in the court when my son informed me that bombs have been hurled. I rushed home...I think this has been done to frighten me, to create terror. It is a big conspiracy... It is for the police to find out who is behind this,” Mishra told reporters, according to The Hindu.

The Verdict

The bombs were hurled near Dayashankar Mishra's house, not Vijay Mishra's. According to the police, the crude bomb explosion near the lawyer's house in Prayagraj on April 18 was unrelated to Atiq and Ashraf Ahmed's murders. While Dayashankar Mishra has claimed that the explosion was meant to frighten him because of his client's case, in any case, the bomb was nowhere near Atiq Ahmed’s other lawyer Vijay Mishra house. Hence, we mark the claim false.