Prayagraj court sentences Atiq Ahmed to a life term in Umesh Pal kidnapping case
Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his Prayagraj residence on February 24.
Prayagraj MP-MLA Court on Tuesday pronounced a life sentence for mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, found guilty in the Umesh Pal kidnapping case. Atiq Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf was acquitted in the case.
Meanwhile, SC rejected a plea by jailed former MP and gangster Atiq Ahmed for protection during his UP police custody. SC granted Ahmed the liberty to approach Allahabad HC for protection over his claim that his life is under threat.
Ahmed and Ashraf are also accused of being involved in a conspiracy, while they were both in prison, to kill Umesh Pal.
The case
After the killing of BSP MLA Raju Pal on January 25, 2005, Umesh Pal, then a zila panchayat member, had told police he was a witness to the murder.
Umesh Pal alleged that when he refused to retract and buckle under pressure from Ahmed, he was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 28, 2006.
The FIR was registered on July 5, 2007, against Ahmed, his brother, and four unidentified people.
Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his Prayagraj residence on February 24.
On a complaint from Umesh Pal's wife, a case was lodged at the Dhoomanganj police station in Prayagraj against Ahmed, his brother, his wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.
Ahmed, a former Samajwadi Party MP from Phulpur, was shifted to the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat in June 2019 following a Supreme Court order after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in prison in Uttar Pradesh.
He is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the Umesh Pal murder case, police said.
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