Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed was brought to the Anantpur Police station in Kota, Rajasthan by a team of Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday morning. Ahmed was on Tuesday convicted by an MP-MLA court in Prayagraj and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in the abduction case of now-deceased Umesh Pal.
News agency ANI shared a video on its Twitter handle in which Atiq Ahmed can be seen stepping out of a police van with armed policemen surrounding him. Once he enters the Anantpur police station, a policeman can be heard directing the policemen to keep calling out to check.
Atiq Ahmed, who has over 100 cases against him over the last 43 years, has been convicted in a case for the first time.He faces serious criminal charges in cases of murder, extortion, kidnapping, intimidation, rioting, and many others.
Ahmed's conviction comes after Umesh Pal, an advocate and a prime witness in the 2005 murder case of BSP MLA Raju Pal, was shot dead in Prayagraj on February 24 this year.
After the killing of the then 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 had alleged that when he refused to retract and buckle under pressure from Ahmed, he was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 28, 2006.
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.
The FIR was registered on July 5, 2007, against Ahmed, his brother and others.
The court also awarded life sentences to Dinesh Pasi and Khan Saulat Hanif and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each of the three convicts. Seven other accused in the case, including Ashraf, brother of Atiq Ahmed, have been acquitted.