Umesh Pal murder case: SC dismisses Atiq Ahmad’s plea for protection in UP police custody
The Supreme Court on March 28 rejected gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmed’s plea seeking protection after alleging a threat to life in Uttar Pradesh.
Ahmed, who was shifted to Prayagraj from Gujarat stated through his lawyer that his life is under threat in Uttar Pradesh and asked the court to grant him protection. He was convicted by an MP/MLA court in Prayagraj on March 28 for the kidnapping and murder of Umesh Pal.
Also read: MC Explains | The assassination of Umesh Pal, prime witness in an MLA’s murder
A bench of the apex court led by Justice Ajay Rastogi refused to entertain the plea and told Ahmed’s lawyer that the state machinery will protect him as he is in the custody of the police.
In 2005, Umesh Pal, a witness in the 2005 murder case of BSP MLA Raju Pal was abducted. However, the case drew nationwide attention after Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his residence in Prayagraj on February 24 this year.
Ahmed was lodged in Sabarmati jail since June 2019 after the Supreme Court had in April that year directed that the former MP from Phulpur in UP be shifted to a high-security jail in Gujarat after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of a real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in jail. He is named in more than 100 criminal cases, police said.
He was shifted to Prayagraj on March 27 by UP Police.
Also read: Atiq Ahmed refuses to leave over ‘threat to life’ as UP Police reaches Sabarmati jail
Ahmed had moved the Supreme Court for protection, claiming 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.
In his plea, Ahmed said the Uttar Pradesh police were in all likelihood seeking his transit remand and police remand to take him from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj and he “genuinely apprehends that he may be eliminated during this transit period”.
If one may recall, two of the accused in the case have already been eliminated in separate encounters by the U.P. police.