Prayagraj Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Thursday heard the Umesh Pal murder case and sentenced Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed to 14 days in judicial custody. Ahmed was on Wednesday brought to the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj from a Gujarat prison for the second time in about a fortnight to be produced in a court in the Umesh Pal murder case. The remand order comes as his son Asad was gunned down in an encounter with UP Special Task Force in Jhansi earlier today.
The two were produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Gautam at 11:10 am amid heavy security and they remained in the court for over two hours while the arguments proceeded.
Ahmad and Ashraf, alias Khalid Azim, will be kept in Naini jail in Prayagraj till April 26, said advocate Vikram Singh, the counsel for Umesh Pal's wife Jaya, as reported by news agency PTI.
"Justice served," said Umesh Pal's mother and wife, reacting to the development.
"I thank CM Yogi ji for serving justice and I appeal to him to give us justice ahead also. We have full faith in the Chief Minister," Shanti Devi, Umesh Pal's mother said, as quoted by news agency ANI. She also called the police action "a tribute to my son".
Umesh Pal, a key witness in the murder case of BSP MLA Raju Pal, and his two police security guards were shot dead outside his home in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj area on February 24 this year.
Ahmed reached the jail at around 6 pm, they said, adding that police will seek his remand for interrogation in connection with the murder. He will be produced in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Gautam on Thursday.
"Due to delay, he could not be produced in the court today," a senior police official said.
Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, who was also brought to Naini jail from Bareilly, will be produced in the court in the same case.
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Umesh Pal Murder Case
Based on a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.
According to news agency PTI, the FIR was lodged under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, Section 3 of Explosive Act and Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act.
The UP Police had on March 26 also brought Ahmed from the Sabarmati jail to Prayagraj to produce him in a court in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case.
On March 28, the court had sentenced Ahmed and two others to life imprisonment in the kidnapping case.
In 2006, the 60-year-old former Samajwadi Party MP and his aides abducted Umesh Pal and forced him to give a statement in court in their favour. Umesh Pal had registered a complaint in this regard.
The Supreme Court had in April 2019 directed that Ahmed be shifted to a high-security jail in Gujarat after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of a real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in jail
Ahmed has been named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the recent Umesh Pal murder case, police said.