A by-stander at CJM court in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj threw a bottle at Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed who was brought to the court for an appearance in Umesh Pal murder case. Ahmed and his brother were presented in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Gautam at around 11:10 am amid tight security. Atiq Ahmed was transported from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to Prayagraj by road for the hearing, while his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf was brought from a Bareilly jail.
Prayagraj Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Thursday heard the Umesh Pal murder case and sentenced Atiq Ahmed to 14 days in police remand. Ahmed’s son Asad, who was wanted in the same case, has been killed in an encounter by UP police in Jhansi today.
"I am totally reduced to dust, but please don't trouble the women and children of my family now," gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad had told reporters from inside a police van on Wednesday.
"Hum aapke jariye government se kehna chahte hain, bulkul mitti me mil gaye hain ab hamari auraoton aur bachchon ko pareshan na karein. (I want to tell the government through you (the media) that I am totally reduced to dust, but please don't trouble the women and children of my family now," Ahmad told a news channel from inside his police van between Jhansi and Prayagraj.
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. 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.