Gangster-turned politician Atiq Ahmed was pronounced guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case by an MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on Tuesday and handed a life-sentence along with two others, while his brother, Khalid Azim alias Ashraf and six other accused in the case were acquitted.

Special MP-MLA court judge Dinesh Chandra Shukla pronounced the guilty verdict against Atiq Ahmed, Lawyer Saulat Hanif and Dinesh Pasi under section 364-A (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which carries the death penalty as the maximum sentence.

Justice Shukla sentenced the guilty trio to 14 years life imprisonment in the case.

Earlier, Ahmed, who was brought by a 45-member team of the Uttar Pradesh Police to the special MP-MLA court in Prayagraj today from Gujarat’s Sabarmati Jail, was convicted, along with the other two accused in the kidnapping of BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case prime witness, Umesh Pal in 2006.

Umesh Pal, then a zila panchayat member, had come forward as the prime witness in Raju Pal’s murder, who was killed on January 25, 2005.

Umesh Pal had claimed that Atiq Ahmed and aides kidnapped him at gunpoint on February 28, 2006 after he refused retract his statement given to the police in the BSP leader’s killing. Based on his complaint, the police on July 5, 2007, had lodged an FIR against Ahmed, his brother, and others.

The UP Police had submitted a chargesheet in the matter against 11 accused. One of them later died.

Read Also: Prayagraj court convicts gangster Atiq Ahmed in Umesh Pal kidnapping case

On February 24 last month, Umesh Pal was shot dead along with his two security men in Prayagraj. Atiq and his brother—who were both in jail at the time—are also the accused in the conspiracy to assassinate Umesh Pal.

On Sunday, a 45-member team of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrived at the Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad to escort Atiq Ahmed to UP to produce him before the special court in Prayagraj in the Umesh Pal abduction case.

Earlier today, reports said that ahead of the hearing, security was heightened outside the Prayagraj court and security personnel were also deployed outside the residence of Ahmed as well as that of his advocate as well.

Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya Pal earlier said she won’t attend the hearing but had prayed for Ahmed to be sentenced to death for her husband’s murder.

On Jaya Pal’s complaint, a case a case was lodged at the Dhoomanganj police station in Prayagraj against Ahmed, his brother, his wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.

A mafia kingpin feared across Uttar Pradesh and former Samajwadi Party MP from Phulpur, Atiq Ahmed was shifted to the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat in June 2019 following a Supreme Court order after he was accused of allegedly orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in prison in the state.

According to the police, Ahmed is named in the Umesh Pal murder case and in over 100 others of criminal nature.

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