Son of Atiq Ahmed killed in police encounter

Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his family have been seeking protection from courts, claiming that they face threats to their lives.

Just a month before his son and aide were killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh police, Atiq Ahmed had approached the Supreme Court for his protection in custody in the Umesh Pal murder case.

On March 17, Atiq Ahmed’s lawyer had requested an urgent hearing and sought more time to argue because he needed to file crucial documents and photographs related to the case. The bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela Trivedi heard the case and rebuked Ahmed’s lawyer for sending files related to the case close to midnight in a truck. When there was no urgency, the bench questioned why they were burdened.

On March 28, the case was relisted, and the Supreme Court declined to intervene, telling Ahmed to file a petition with the High Court. Ahmed argued that he faced threats to his life, but the apex court allowed Ahmed’s lawyer to withdraw the plea, stating that the state machinery would take care of him.

On the same day, a Prayagraj court convicted Atiq Ahmed and two other accused in the 2006 kidnapping of Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case. Umesh Pal was killed on February 24, 2023, and Atiq’s son Asad was one of the accused in that case. The MP-MLA court in Prayag sentenced Atiq Ahmed to life in prison along with two other defendants, Dinesh Pasi and Khan Saulat Hanif, and ordered each of them to pay Rs 1 lakh in restitution to the family of the late Umesh Pal.

This was the first conviction for the jailed gangster. Coincidentally, Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister, said in the Assembly the day after Umesh Pal’s murder that “is mafia ko mitti me mila denge.” Atiq and Khalid Ashraf, who were identified in the murder investigation, are detained in Bareilly and Sabarmati Central prisons, respectively.

Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf filed separate petitions on February 27 in a local court in Prayagraj, alleging that their lives were in danger while being transported to court. Atiq claimed in his petition that the police intended to kill him as they transported him to Prayagraj by road after obtaining his production warrant.Similar to this, Ashraf claimed that after the police drove him to Prayagraj, they would plan to kill him.

After the prosecution asserted that there was no application for their warrant pending in court on February 28, the court rejected these pleas. In separate letters to the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary, Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen and Ashraf’s wife Zainab Fatima asked for security for their husbands and asserted that there was a serious political plot to have them killed. Vijay Mishra, the legal representative for Atiq and Ashraf, did not return calls.

Coincidentally, on February 27, 2023, the Allahabad High Court had refused bail to Atiq Ahmed other son Ali Ahmad and made remarks on the criminal antecedents of Ahmed’s family.”Mafia Don and his family have accumulated the wealth and properties worth several hundred crores in this manner from proceeds of crime,” the court ruled. The applicant is a Mafia Don himself, and the Supreme Court has accelerated the prosecution of his case for his involvement in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in Raju Pal’s murder. Umesh Pal was a member of the Legislative Assembly at the time of his death. If such a criminal is released on bail, he or she would pose a threat to not only.