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Prayagraj (UP): Mafia Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi and his lawyer Khan Soulat Hanif have been convicted in the Umesh Pal kidnapping case. The MP/MLA court has sentenced all of them to rigorous life imprisonment. Along with this, a fine of five thousand each has also been imposed on all three. On the other hand, seven accused including Atiq’s brother Ashraf alias Khalid Azim have been acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence. In view of the production of Atiq and Ashraf, tight security was put in place outside the court and jail premises. Both the brothers were brought to Prayagraj on Monday from two different jails.
Earlier Bahubali Atiq Ahmed and his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf were presented in the court. In 2005, both were produced today in connection with the kidnapping of Umesh Pal, a witness in the Raju Pal murder case of the then MLA of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Atiq and Ashraf are also accused of involvement in the conspiracy in the murder of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder of Raju Pal, last month. Umesh Pal and two policemen posted under his security were shot dead on February 24 in Prayagraj. On the complaint of Pal’s wife Jaya, a case was registered against Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam and nine others at Prayagraj’s Dhumanganj police station.
After the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal on January 25, 2005, the then district panchayat member Umesh Pal had told the police that he was an eyewitness to the murder. Umesh had alleged that he was abducted on February 28, 2006, when he refused to back down and bow down to Atiq Ahmed’s pressure. An FIR was registered in this case on July 5, 2007, against Atiq, his brother Ashraf and four unknown persons. The charge sheet presented in the court in the case mentions 11 accused.
Atiq Ahmed, a former Samajwadi Party (SP) MP from Phulpur, was shifted to Gujarat’s Sabarmati Central Jail in June 2019. Atiq was sent to Sabarmati Jail after he was accused of kidnapping and assaulting real estate baron Mohit Jaiswal while he was in jail in Uttar Pradesh. Atiq Ahmed is named in more than 100 criminal cases including the Umesh Pal murder case.
Officials said that Ashraf, lodged in Bareilly District Jail since July 2020, was brought to Naini Central Jail on Monday evening amid tight security arrangements. A police team along with him left for Prayagraj from Bareilly on Monday morning.
