Ashish Ranjan
Umesh Pal kidnapping case: A court in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, convicted gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and two others in the 2006 hijacking of Umesh Pal, the key witness in the murder case against BSP MLA Raju Pal.
Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi, and Khan Saulat Hanif were sentenced to life in prison and fined Rs 1 lakh by the MP-MLA court. This is the first conviction for the incarcerated individual.In the case, seven others, including Ahmed’s brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, were exonerated.
In a further setback for Atiq Ahmed, the Supreme Court denied his request for protection during his detention by Uttar Pradesh police in the Umesh Pal murder investigation. Ahmed asserted that he and his family face a real and perceptible danger to their lives.
Ahmed was moved from the Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj under strict security precautions in advance of today’s court hearing in the 17-year-old abduction case.
UMESH PAL KIDNAPPING CASE
Umesh Pal, who was a member of the zila panchayat at the time, told police he had witnessed the assassination of BSP MLA Raju Pal on January 25, 2005.
Umesh Pal asserted that on February 28, 2006, he was kidnapped at gunpoint because he refused to retract and yield to Ahmed’s coercion. On 5 July 2007, the FIR was filed against Ahmed, his sibling, and four unidentified individuals.
On February 24th, Umesh Pal was gunned down outside of his residence in Prayagraj. Atiq Ahmed and his sibling Ashraf are accused of conspiring to murder Umesh Pal while they were both incarcerated.
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Atiq Ahmed is a former Phulpur Samajwadi Party MP and five-time MLA. He is named in over a hundred criminal cases, including the homicide of Umesh Pal.
