Umesh Pal was murdered 13 days later.
New Delhi:
Those accused of killing Umesh Pal had hatched the plan to murder him in a meeting inside Bareilly jail on February 11 this year, the day that gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed was sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly kidnapping Mr Pal in 2006, sources said. Atiq’s son Asad, accused of murdering Mr Pal on February 24 to help his father get out of jail, was yesterday gunned down by the Uttar Pradesh police after a dramatic chase.
Asad, along with eight others — including Ghulam, the shooter, and Guddu Muslim, who hurled a bomb at Umesh Pal — met Atiq’s brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf for over two hours on the day the gangster was sentenced in the kidnapping case. Police sources said the meeting was arranged in collusion with prison officials, and there were no CCTV cameras at the spot.
Umesh Pal was murdered 13 days later.
Ghulam, who was accompanying Asad before the encounter, was also killed after he allegedly opened fire at the police on being cornered.
Mr Pal, then a zila panchayat member, was the prime witness of the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal and his police security guards Raghavendra Singh and Sandeep Nishad, killed on January 25, 2005. Umesh Pal had accused former Samajwadi Party MLA Atiq Ahmed and his gang members of kidnapping him at gunpoint on February 26, 2006, before the murder case was filed. He said he was beaten up, electrocuted, and made to write a statement that he didn’t witness the murder.
Umesh Pal filed a case against Atiq Ahmed when the BSP government was formed months later.
Atiq Ahmad, 61, had said that he had no motive to kill Umesh Pal, who was the complainant in a separate case against him, since the hearing was to end next month, and Umesh Pal had nothing to do with that trial any more.
Atiq was moved to Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail on the directions of the Supreme Court after he was accused of engineering the kidnapping of a real estate businessman while in jail. He was recently shifted to UP in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case, where he is also an accused.
Asad Ahmed and Ghulam planned to attack the convoy transporting Atiq Ahmed, top sources said today. They didn’t plan to break Atiq free as the security was tight, but would have fired a few rounds at the convoy to sensationalise the case to embarrass the Uttar Pradesh government, sources said.
