BSP MLA Murder Case: CBI Convicts All 7 Accused, Sentence To Be Pronounced Soon
A CBI court convicted all the seven accused in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal. Slain criminal-turned-politicians were also involved in this murder case.
A special CBI court on Friday convicted all the seven accused in the murder case of the Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal. The central probe agency had filed a chargesheet against 10 people including former MP Atiq Ahmed and his younger brother and former MLA Ashraf Ahmed. Both of them were killed last year by three men while they were being taken by police to a hospital in Prayagraj. The BSP MLA was killed along with two of his gunmen named Devilal Pal and Sandeep Yadav in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj in January 2005.
Apart from the two brothers, the names of the other accused mentioned in the chargesheet include Javed, Gul Hasan, Abid, Farhan Ahmad, Ranjit, Abdul Kavi, Israr. Another accused named Gulphool alias Rafiq Ahmad also died while the case was under trial.
As per reports, the quantam of the sentence is to be pronounced by the court.
What Is The Raju Pal Murder Case 2005?
After Atiq Ahmed won from Phulpur constituency during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, his younger brother Khalid Azim, alias Ashraf contested from Allahabad West Assembly seat. This was necessitated after Atiq became an MP from Samajwadi Party’s ticket but lost to Raju Pal, who was fielded by the BSP.
Thereafter, the electoral tussle turned into a political rivalry. A day before Republic Day in 2005, the BSP MLA was shot dead by the assailants who heavily opened fire on his car. He was travelling with his associates when his car was intercepted by the assailants at Neeva crossing, which comes under the jurisdiction of Dhoomanganj police station. While three of them died on the spot, three others suffered bullet injuries, TOI reported.
The postmortem report stated that around 18 bullets were removed from Raju Pal’s body.
On the day of the murder, Pooja Pal lodged an FIR against Atiq and Ashraf, and the other unidentified assailants.
Folllwing his murder, Raju Pal’s wife, Puja Pal, whom he married just 11 days before, contested from the Allahabad West seat. However, she lost to Ashraf Ahmed. In 2007, she was given a ticket again by BSP for the Assembly elections. She won from the seat in 2005 and then won again in 2012.
In 2008, the case was trasnferred by th state government to the UP CB-CID team for investigation.
A case was registered under section 302(murder), 120-B (criminal consipracy), 147 (rioting), and 148 (rioting with armed weapons) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case was later transferred to CBI in January 2016. The Supreme Court passed the order on a petition filed by Pooja Pal, the report stated.
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