Agra: A former councillor from Etah district, who is accused of being involved in the alleged murder of a Muslim cleric in 2016, is learnt to be behind six murders , including that of two sadhus in Aligarh, in the last one month.According to police, the accused, Sabir Ali, decided to target sadhus as part of a conspiracy to frame the witnesses in the 2016 murder case. During questioning, he revealed that since the UP chief minister was a yogi, he decided to target ascetics as he knew that police would act promptly in such cases. That is why after every murder, Ali and his associates left clues behind.On Tuesday, Aligarh police arrested five people, including Sabir Ali, alias Dinesh Pratap Singh, his son Nadeem and his three associates named Salman, Irfan and Yaseen. Three other men involved in these murders — Mustkeem, Naushad and Afsar — are currently on the run.Aligarh SSP Ajay Kumar Sahini told TOI that Dinesh Pratap Singh is from Dalit community and before being elected as councillor from a reserved seat, he converted to Islam and became Sabir Ali.The SSP said that Ali owns a large portion of Land in Etah. In 2016 after he did not get the desired price for the land, he donated 2 bighas to build a madrassa and called a cleric from Bihar, Shehzad, to run the institution. Later, the land prices spiked and several buyers lined up at his doorstep.“Ali told the cleric to leave the madrasa and go back to Bihar. However, the latter refused. After his attempt to implicate the cleric in a false case failed, Ali hired a contract killer named Shahbaz and paid him Rs 5 lakh to climate Shehzad. On April 2, 2016, Shahbaz killed the cleric,” said the SSP.On the complaint of the deceased’s wife, police arrested and jailed Ali and his associates. During his stay in the prison, the former councillor came in contact with one Afsar, and together they hatched a conspiracy to implicate the four witnesses — Haji Kesar, Jaan Mohamad, Firoz and Shoaib.After being released on bail in December 2017, Ali and his associates started executing their plan. The first murder was committed on August 12 this year under Pali police station. Two sadhus and a farmer were brutally beaten up with sticks, resulting in the death of an ascetic and the farmer. At the scene of crime, the killers dropped a chit with the names and contact details of the 2016 witnesses.The second case was reported on the night of August 26 in Atrauli. The accused attacked a sadhu, but failed to kill him. Later, they hacked a farmer to death. On the intervening night of Saturday andSunday, Ali and his associates again tried to target an ascetic at Durainin ashram in Harduaganj, but failed. They hid in a farm in the area. However, after the farm owner and his wife questioned them, they killed the couple. They also murdered a sadhu before leaving.Police said that when they contacted the witnesses in the 2016 murder, the entire conspiracy unraveled. After every murder, the accused used the victim’s phone to call these witnesses.The SSP said that a police team comprising eight officers was rewarded Rs 1.25 lakhs for cracking the case. He said that Aligarh police has also announced reward of Rs 25,000 each on the absconding criminals.