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Life Term For Gangster Atiq Ahmed: A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Praygraj on Tuesday awarded gangster-turned-politician life imprisonment in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case. However, seven people, including his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, have been acquitted in the case. Umesh Pal was the prime witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case which happened in 2005.
Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his Prayagraj residence on February 24, 2023. Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were accused of being involved in a conspiracy, while they were both in prison, to kill Umesh Pal.
The MP-MLA court sentenced Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi and Khan Saulat Hanif to life imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh. This is the first conviction for the jailed don who has over 100 criminal cases registered against him.
In a major setback for the former Samajwadi leader, the Supreme Court dismissed his petition seeking protection during his custody with Uttar Pradesh police in the Umesh Pal murder case. Ahmed had claimed that there is a genuine and perceptible threat to his and his family members’ lives.
Atiq Ahmed was lodged in Sabarmati Central jail in Gujarat in 2019 following the order of the Supreme Court. Atiq claimed that he and his family have been falsely implicated as accused in the Umesh Pal murder case in Prayagraj and he may be killed in a fake encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The gangster-turned-politician, in his plea, claimed that he fears for his life as he believes that in all likelihood he will be killed in a fake encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
“He (Atiq Ahmed) was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping my son but he should be given a death sentence for killing my son. I have faith in UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the judicial system,” said Shanti Devi, mother of Umesh Pal.
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