A day before the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Nagar Nikay Chunav, the wife of Umesh Pal has appealed to the residents of the town to support the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in the urban local body polls. Jaya Pal issued a poster expressing her gratitude for the decimation of the killers of her husband and BSP MLA Raju Pal. The poster carried the images of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP MLA Sidharth Nath Singh, reported PTI. It also has photos of Umesh Pal, Jaya Pal and Raju Pal.
"At a public meeting of Adityanath here, some people arrived with a poster that read in Hindi: "Umesh Pal, Raju Pal ke hatyaro ko mitti mein milane ke liye dhanyavad (thanks for decimating the killers of Umesh Pal and Raju Pal). Bulldozer Baba zindabad, Sidharth Nath Singh zindabad", Sidharth Nath Singh, the MLA from Allahabad West, said, as quoted by PTI.
A pamphlet carrying the name and photograph of Jaya Pal and making an appeal to people to support BJP has also gone viral on social media.
"Whatever Yogiji had said, he has delivered. He has decimated the mafia," the pamphlet read. It further read, "Bless and support CM Yogi Adityanath and BJP and strengthen their hands"
Umesh Pal and his two police security guards were shot dead on February 24 outside his residence in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj area. Based on a complaint from Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others, reported PTI.
Following this, on March 28, an MP-MLA court held Ahmad and two others guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. As per PTI, this was Ahmad's first conviction even though more than 100 cases were registered against him.
The 60-year-old former Samajwadi Party MP was brought from the Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh by road for hearing in the case in Prayagraj.
On April 15, Atiq Ahmad and Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction, while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup.