From Cop’s Daughter To ‘Most-Wanted’ By UP Police, Know About Atiq Ahmad’s Wife Shaista Parveen

Police said Shaista had been absconding since she was named as an accused in the shooting incident in which lawyer Umesh Pal, the prime witness in 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case was killed.

New Delhi: 51-year-old Shaista Parveen, the wife of mafia politician Atiq Ahmad who was shot dead in police custody, is now on top of the UP police’s “most wanted” list and the bounty for information leading to her capture is Rs 50,000.

Police said Shaista had been absconding since she was named as an accused in the shooting incident in which lawyer Umesh Pal, the prime witness in 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, and two of his police gunners were killed outside his house in Sulemsarai on February 24.

Despite rumors of her surrendering at Atiq’s last rites, Shaista is absconding.

A letter written on 27 February allegedly penned by Parveen to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has emerged following the death of Atiq. In the letter, Parveen asserts that Atiq and Ashraf are being wrongly accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. She further claimed that minister Nand Gopal Gupta masterminded Pal’s assassination.

“If you (CM Adityanath) don’t intervene, my husband, brother-in-law, and sons would be killed,” she wrote in the letter.

Who is Shaista Parveen?

• Shaista, the daughter of retired police constable Mohammed Haroon, and her family used to live in Damupur village, Prayagraj.
• As a child, she lived with her father in the government police quarters. Shaista, the eldest of her siblings, has four sisters and two brothers. One of her brothers is the principal of a madrasa.
•  Shaista married Atiq in 1996. She studied till Class 12 and had no association with any illegal activities.
• The couple had five sons, one of whom, Asad, was killed in a police encounter two days before Atiq was murdered. The other sons are Ali, Umar Ahmad, and two minors.
• Every time Atiq and Ashraf went to jail, it was Shaista who would handle her husband’s affairs. Having cleared Class XII from a college in Prayagraj, Shaista initially confined herself to household chores.
• In Shaista’s name, there are four cases registered in Prayagraj since 2009 — three cheating and one murder. The first three cases filed at Colonelganj police station date back to 2009 and were registered under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security or will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document) besides section 30 (contravention of licence or rule) of the Arms Act. The murder case is of Umesh Pal.
• Shaista is one of the prime accused in the Umesh Pal murder case.
• Shaista joined AIMIM in September 2021. In January 2023, she joined BSP, eyeing a ticket from the party for mayoral polls. But after Umesh Pal’s murder, the party distanced itself from her and later removed her name from its list of mayoral candidates.

Shaista Parveen, who police are searching for, may be difficult to find, say reports, as she could be observing iddhah – a period of seclusion following her husband’s death where no one can meet her.