Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad gets life imprisonment in Umesh Pal kidnapping case
2 min read 28 Mar 2023, 02:50 PM ISTChief Minister Yogi Adityanath had last month charged the Samajwadi Party with garlanding mafias like Atiq Ahmad and had said in the state assembly that 'mafia (Atiq Ahmad) ko mitti me mila denge (will destroy the mafia).'
PremiumGangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Umesh Pal kidnapping case. An MP-MLA court in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh pronounced the sentence in the case and also imposed a fine of ₹5,000 on Atiq Ahmed.
The sentencing case hours after Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi and Khan Saulat Hanif were convicted in the Umesh Pal kidnapping case. All the other seven accused, including the brother of Atiq Ahmed, Ashraf, have been acquitted.
Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi and Khan Saulat Hanif were pronounced guilty under Indian Penal Code section 364-A (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder). The maximum sentence under the section is the death sentence.
The Special MP-MLA court judge Dinesh Chandra Shukla has held that Ahmad, Saulat Hanif, a lawyer, and Dinesh Pasi guilty in the case, government counsel Gulab Chandra Agrahari said.
The three were pronounced guilty under Indian Penal Code section 364-A (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder), Agrahari said. The accused were served with life imprisonment. The maximum sentence under the section is death sentence.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had last month charged the Samajwadi Party with garlanding mafias like Atiq Ahmad and had said in the state assembly that "mafia (Atiq Ahmad) ko mitti me mila denge (will destroy the mafia)."
After the killing of then BSP MLA Raju Pal on 25 January, 2005, Umesh Pal, then a zila panchayat member, had told police he was a witness to the murder.
Umesh Pal had alleged that when he refused to retract and buckle under pressure from Ahmad, he was kidnapped at gunpoint on 28 February, 2006. An FIR in the case was registered on 5 July, 2007, against Ahmed, his brother and others.
The police had submitted a chargesheet in the matter against 11 people. One of them later died.
Ahmad and Ashraf are also accused of being involved in a conspiracy, while they were both in prison, to kill Umesh Pal. Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his Prayagraj residence on 24 February 2022.
Earlier, Ahmad, Ashraf and others were brought to court from Naini jail in separate police vans and produced in the court amid tight security.
Both of them were on Monday brought to the Naini Central Jail here after long road journeys from two separate prisons.
Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal earlier said she won't be going to the court but will "pray" that Ahmad gets capital punishment.
"I am not going to the court. I will be in my house and pray for capital punishment for Ahmad. If they get life imprisonment, they will continue to do the same things that they did with my husband," Jaya Pal told reporters.
On a complaint from Umesh Pal's wife, a case was lodged at the Dhoomanganj police station in Prayagraj against Ahmad, his brother, his wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.
Ahmad, a former Samajwadi Party MP from Phulpur, was shifted to the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat in June 2019 following a Supreme Court order after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in prison in Uttar Pradesh.
He is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the Umesh Pal murder case, police said.
