While the government called the attack on Gorakhnath temple as part of some terror plot and asked the Anti-Terrorist Squad to probe it, the father of the accused Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi claimed his son was `mentally sick’ and denied any “conspiracy” behind the incident.

Manir Ahmed Abbasi, father of Murtaza, who was also taken in police custody for interrogation, told the police that his son's mental condition was not good and he had been looking for him since Sunday evening a few hours before the incident.

He also claimed that a day before the incident, two people had come to his house on Saturday and they were probably ATS officers. He said the same person also visited his elder son’s nursing home.

The visitors inquired about his son and were talking of some loan of Rs 36 lakh. After this, they left without saying anything, riding a motorcycle. Now the police are also looking for these two people as well as investigation is being done in this direction. Both the people are clearly visible in the CCTV installed at the nursing home. Both came on a motorcycle and then quietly left from there without saying anything. Manir suspects both the persons to be ATS officials.

Sources said that during the interrogation, Murtaza, a resident of Civil Lines area of Gorakhpur, claimed that he had studied chemical engineering from IIT Bombay and lived in Mumbai with his family till October 2020. He also revealed that his wife had left him and that he had also lost his job following which he went into depression, and had not slept for many days. He wanted someone to kill him with bullets, and it was for this reason he attacked the policemen, the accused disclosed as the reason for the incident.

However, the police do not agree with his statement, particularly the contradictory versions. The accused did not tell why he wanted to die at the hands of the police? The police station nearby is also right in front, so why did he not go there and try it? He was also asked that when the policemen stopped him, why did he keep on attacking them to go inside the temple?

Apart from this, there are many questions like why he carried a laptop, PAN card etc, for which he had no satisfactory answer.