Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday praised the killing of Asad Ahmad, the son of jailed gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad, along with another accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, calling the police action ‘historic’.
Asad Ahmad and Ghulam were killed this morning in a police encounter with UP Police's Special Task Force in Jhansi. They were both wanted in connection with the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal with a cash bounty of ₹5 lacs on each.
Taking to Twitter, the UP deputy chief minister congratulated the state police calling it justice for those who killed Umesh Pal and his guards. “Congratulations to UP STF, this was the fate that killers of Shri Umesh Pal Advocate and the police personnel deserved,” his tweet in Hindi read.
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UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s office also reacted to the encounter. “After the encounter of former MP Atiq Ahmed's son Asad and his aide, CM Yogi Adityanath took a meeting on law and order. CM Yogi praised UP STF as well as DGP, Special DG law and order and the entire team. Sanjay Prasad, Principal Secretary Home informed the CM about the encounter. A report was placed in front of the CM on this whole matter,” the office said in a statement.
Notably, Asad’s father Atiq Ahmad had, last month, claimed there was threat to his life when he was being brought before a court in UP's Prayagraj - from his jail in Gujarat's Ahmedabad. He had claimed that he would be killed in a road accident or a police encounter. However, he was brought back to the Gujarat jail after the court sent him to extended judicial custody.
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Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were produced before the CJM district court in the lawyer’s murder case today.
Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder case of BSP MLA Raju Pal, and his two police security guards were shot dead outside his home in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj area on February 24 this year.
Based on a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against Ahmad, Ashraf, their family members and others.
The FIR was lodged under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Ahmad is also an accused in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case.
