Gangster Atiq Ahmed moves SC seeking protection of life

ailed former Samajwadi Party MP and gangster Atiq Ahmed on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court for protection, claiming that he and his family have been falsely “roped in” as accused in the Umesh Pal murder case in Prayagraj and he may be killed in a fake encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

In his plea, Ahmed, who is presently lodged at the central jail Ahmedabad in Gujarat, has referred to the statement made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the floor of the Assembly to “completely ruin and destroy” him and claimed there is a “genuine and perceptible threat” to his and his family members’ lives.

He said the Uttar Pradesh Police in all likelihood will seek his transit remand and also police remand to take him from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj and he “genuinely apprehends that he may be eliminated during this transit period”.

In his plea filed in the apex court, 61-year-old Ahmed has sought directions to the Centre, state of Uttar Pradesh and others to protect his life against the “open, direct and immediate threat” to his life from high state functionaries of Uttar Pradesh.

“After the murder of Umesh Pal, Opposition put fuel in the fire in the House which provoked the CM to say... ‘mafia ko mitti me mila doonga’ because petitioner was the main subject in argument in House,” the plea said.

“Petitioner (Ahmed) genuinely apprehends and believes that the petitioner may be killed in a fake encounter on one pretext or the other by UP police particularly in view of the statement made by the Chief Minister of state of UP on the floor of the house,” the plea alleged.

Umesh Pal, who was the prime witness in then BSP MLA Raju Pal’s murder in 2005, and his police security guard Sandeep Nishad were shot dead on Friday last outside his home in Dhoomanganj area of Prayagraj.

Umesh Pal was a key witness in the 2005 MLA murder case in Prayagraj in which Ahmed and others are prime accused.

Arbaaz, an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, was killed in an encounter with the police on Monday. Dhoomanganj police station SHO Rajesh Maurya was also injured in the encounter.

The petition was filed on a day the Prayagraj Development Authority demolished the house of a close aide of Ahmed.

Prayagraj Development Authority secretary Ajit Singh said the house belonging to Zafar Ahmed has been bulldozed. He said Atiq Ahmed’s wife Shaista Parveen used to stay in the same house earlier.