One of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed’s two sons–Ali and Umar Ahmad– would be shot in a day or two, claimed Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav on Tuesday. Ahmed’s son, Ali’s name had been linked to the murder of Umesh Pal— a key witness in the killing of former BSP legislator Raju Pal in 2005.
Defending Atiq Ahmed, Ram Gopal Yadav said police are not being able to find the real culprits in the Umesh Pal murder case.
“When they’re not getting actual culprits, they’re under pressure from the top. They’ll kill whoever they can find…They nabbed Atiq Ahmed’s two sons, one of them will be killed in a few days,’ said Yadav, according to news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, a team of Uttar Pradesh Police has reached West Bengal’s Kolkata after getting inputs that some of the suspects in the murder of Umesh Pal, are hiding in the city.
Umesh Pal Murder Top Points:
▶Umesh Pal, a key witness in the killing of former BSP legislator Raju Pal, was gunned down on February 24 outside his home in Dhoomanganj in Prayagraj.
▶While Umesh Pal succumbed the same day, his two security personnel died later during treatment.
▶Umesh Pal was a key witness in the murder of Raju Pal, a BSP legislator who was murdered months after winning the Allahabad (West) Assembly seat by defeating former Samajwadi Party MP Atiq Ahmed’s younger brother Khalid Azim.
▶According to police, Umesh Pal’s murder was executed with surgical precision and sophisticated weapons, including 9mm pistols, Springfield rifles and crude bombs were used in the killing.
▶“All attackers planned and practised before executing the final task. First, Usman was spotted in the video opening fire. He was also holding a crude bomb. Then, he was given cover fire, while another suspect identified as Guddu Muslim, hurls a bomb. The whole murder tool place in less than a minute.” Additional director general of police, law and order Prashant Kumar said
▶He said a team of police has been sent to Kolkata in West Bengal after getting inputs that the suspects are in Kolkata. As per the official, after executing the murder, the attackers reached the Sulemsarai area in rural Prayagraj and dispersed from there.
▶Police have a tip-off that some of them fled to Kolkata and were being given shelter by a local mafia.
▶The man who had allegedly fired the first shot at Umesh Pal was shot dead in an encounter in Prayagraj on Monday, Uttar Pradesh police said. Vijay Chaudhary, alias Usman, suffered bullet injuries in his neck, chest and thigh during the encounter.
▶This was the second “encounter” in the case in a week. However, it was the first encounter against the shooters involved in Umesh Pal’s murder. Police had said the driver of the SUV used in the killing had been shot dead in an earlier encounter.
▶Police said Usman was the one who fired the first shot at Umesh Pal on February 24 outside his home in Dhoomanganj. “A shooter involved in the February 24 incident was injured in an encounter with police in Prayagraj. He was rushed for treatment to a hospital, where he died,” Additional Director General, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar told reporters.
▶The encounter took place between Gothi and Belwa under the Kaundhiyara police station area around 5.30 am, Dhoomanganj Station House Officer Rajesh Kumar Maurya said.
▶As per police, Usman carried a reward of Rs 50,000 for his arrest, adding that a .32 bore pistol and cartridges were recovered from him.
▶Police said the gang members of the gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, the main accused in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case who is lodged in a Gujarat jail currently, gave Vijay Chaudhary his second name “Usman”.
▶ His brother Rakesh Chaudhary is lodged in Naini Central Jail and a dozen of cases, including murder, have been registered against him.
▶Usman’s wife Suhani has accused the police of killing him in a fake encounter after picking him up earlier on Monday. Talking to reporters, Suhani alleged that the police took away her husband and father-in-law in the morning and confiscated their mobile phones.
▶Accusing the police of misusing the law, Suhani said, “The police have done absolutely wrong. The law is not made to kill someone. The law is made to protect.” She accused Chief Minister Adityanath of getting all this done.
▶She said that on February 24, the day of Umesh Pal’s killing, her husband, who runs his own vehicle (Bolero) at a cement company, had left the house saying he had to leave for work.
▶ Meanwhile, authorities also vacated and sealed the Muslim hostel of Allahabad University in Prayagraj following the arrest of a man in connection with the killing of Umesh Pal. The name of Sadakat Khan, a resident of Ghazipur and an LLB student at Allahabad University, appeared in the Umesh Pal murder case following which he was arrested from the hostel by the STF last Monday, officials said.
▶A video of the killing of Umesh Pal in broad daylight had gone viral on social media and raised questions about law and order in Uttar Pradesh.
▶Following the incident, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vowed in the state assembly that he would destroy the mafia in the state.
▶On February 27, Arbaz, who allegedly drove the SUV of the killers of Umesh Pal, was killed in an encounter with the police in Prayagraj and one Sadakat was arrested.
▶”Our government is determined to take strict action against those involved in this case. We will nab each and every accused and give them the strict punishment under the law,” Deputy Chief Minister Brijesh Pathak told reporters Monday.
▶”How fearless criminals have become that they are not desisting from attacking even the police. Came to know this morning itself that a miscreant was killed in an encounter,” he added.
▶Meanwhile, the Prayagraj Police also employed bulldozers to demolish the premises of the accused, who are said to be close associates of Atiq Ahmed.
▶According to the reports, the bulldozers were rolled over the properties of one Zafar Ahmed, where Atiq Ahmed’s wife Shaista Parveen was living. Officials said an air gun was seized from the house of Zafar Ahmed.
▶Authorities also demolished a two-storey building owned by Safdar Aliaide, an alleged arms trader linked to Atiq Ahmed, in Prayagraj amid heavy police presence. Officials said an air gun seized from the house of Zafar Ahmed on Wednesday was brought from Ali’s house.
▶Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya had filed a complaint against Atiq Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam and nine others at Dhoomanganj police station for the murder of her husband.
▶The accused have been booked under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of the offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
▶Meanwhile, at a press conference, Atiq Ahmed’s sister Ayesha Noori accused Prayagraj Mayor Abhilasha Gupta Nandi of conspiring to kill Umesh Pal to embroil Shaista Parveen in the case, so that she could not contest the next mayoral election after the BSP declared her as its candidate.
▶Noori also accused Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, a minister in the state government, of not returning Rs 5 crore taken from Atiq Ahmed.
▶Reacting to the allegations levelled on him, ‘Nandi’ in a tweet in Hindi said, “There is rule of law in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-ji! The Adityanath government is working on a zero-tolerance policy towards criminals and the mafia. Even in the Umesh Pal murder case, the action initiated is moving in this direction.”
▶”The baseless allegations are only an unsuccessful attempt to divert attention from the main issue and mislead….Linking this with the mayoral elections is not only irrelevant but also laughable,” he said in another tweet.
▶In 2006, Atiq Ahmed and his aides abducted Umesh Pal and forced him to give a statement in court in their favour. Umesh Pal had registered a complaint in this regard and the case was ongoing.
▶The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday announced a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh for information on five people, including Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad, allegedly involved in the killing of Umesh Pal.
▶Besides Asad, the other four accused on whom the reward was announced included Ghulam, Guddu and Sabir.
(With PTI Inputs)
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