Atiq Ahmed’s son may also be killed in encounter, claims SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Tuesday said that one of the two sons of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, who was named as an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, may also be killed in an encounter with the police very soon.

“When the real culprits are out of reach, there is pressure from above on the stage. The police have already arrested two minor sons of Atiq Ahmed,” he said. The son of gangster-turned-politician Ali Ahmed was last week named in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness to the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal.

Umesh Pal and his police constable Sandeep Nishad were shot dead on February 24 outside his house in Dhoomanganj area of Prayagraj. Alias Usman, Vijay Chaudhary, who first shot Umesh Pal, was fatally shot early Monday morning in an encounter with the Prayagraj police.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier said during a debate in the state assembly on the killing of Umesh Pal that the gangsters would be ground to dust. 

A case was registered against Atiq Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, assistants Guddu Muslim and Gulam, among nine others, at the Dhoomanganj police station in Prayagraj based on a complaint filed by Umesh's wife Pal Jaya.

They were charged under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of an offense committed in furtherance of a common cause), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the provisions of the Explosives Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Earlier in 2006, Atiq Ahmed and his aides allegedly kidnapped Raju Pal and forced him to testify in court in their favor. Umesh Pal filed a complaint in this regard and the case continued in court.