Police officers on Friday claimed that gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed stated throughout intense questioning that lawyer Umesh Pal was killed for elevating his voice in opposition to him and interfering in his “unlawful” actual property enterprise.
Throughout questioning, Atiq conceded that Umesh didn’t pay heed to repeated warnings from him to chorus from interfering in his affairs, particularly the extremely profitable property dealing enterprise and was beginning to have an effect on Atiq’s status and earnings each, in accordance with police officers.
Atiq instructed police officers interrogating him that it was at Umesh Pal’s instigation, that even Atiq’s one-time henchmen began opposing him, forcing his hand to kill Umesh Pal to restrict injury to his earnings and status in addition to ship a warning to others opposing him, they stated.
Atiq reportedly instructed the police officers that Umesh Pal was decided to get him convicted incourt in any case doable and, regardless of being warned had gone forward and registered his testimony in the Umesh Pal kidnapping case. Atiq claimed that it was at Umesh Pal’s instigation that even one-time aides like Zeeshan and Zaid dared to file FIRs in opposition to him, and so to show him a lesson, he was killed with the assist of Ashraf.
Earlier, the police started questioning Atiq Ahmed and his youthful brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf below tight safety on the Dhoomanganj police station in Prayagraj after medical examination on late Thursday night time.
They had been questioned concerning the motive behind the killing of lawyer Umesh Pal and the whereabouts of the accused who’re nonetheless at massive, together with Atiq’s spouse Shaista Parveen and affiliate Guddu Muslim.
Officers stated Atiq and Ashraf initially saved mum on many of the questions. They denied having information of the whereabouts of Shaista and the others concerned in the murder.
Umesh Pal, a key witness to the murder of Bahujan Samaj Celebration (BSP) MLA Raju Pal in 2005, was shot lifeless in Prayagraj’s Sulem Sarai space below the Dhoomanganj police limits on February 24. A number of rounds had been fired and bombs had been hurled at Umesh and his two police bodyguards, who succumbed to their accidents later. Atiq and his brother Ashraf are among the many accused in each the Raju Pal and Umesh Pal murder circumstances.
The courtroom of the chief judicial Justice of the Peace, Prayagraj, on Thursday had allowed four-day police remand of Atiq and Ashraf.
The 2 brothers will stay in police custody until April 17 and shall be despatched to Naini Central jail after a correct medical examination in a authorities hospital, police officers stated. The CJM’s courtroom had ordered 14-day judicial custody until April 26.
Police barricaded the Dhoomanganj police station premises as Atiq and Ashraf had been taken inside to be questioned individually.
Whereas Atiq requested for medicines on Thursday, on Friday he repeatedly stated the authorities ought to allow him to attend his son Asad’s funeral, folks conscious of the matter stated.
Investigators additionally requested Atiq and Ashraf concerning the particulars of conspiracy hatched in jail however they gave unsatisfactory solutions, officers stated.
Officers then confirmed them the CCTV footage and different proof indicating their involvement in the sensational murder.
Police and UP STF officers would additionally question them about hyperlinks with Pakistan-based terror teams and ISI that the police, in their remand software, claimed the brothers admitted to.
Within the remand software filed in the chief judicial Justice of the Peace’s courtroom, Dhoomanganj police had knowledgeable the courtroom that Atiq and Ashraf had confessed to having hidden a big cache of firearms and crude bombs in Prayagraj, Unnao, Kaushambi and Fatehpur districts. The appliance had claimed that Atiq and Ashraf had additionally confessed to having obtained firearms and ammunition from Pakistan which had been dropped by way of a drone at a spot near Pakistan border in Punjab.
In consequence, they may also to be questioned concerning the place at Pakistan border from the place they used to obtain firearms and from whom they used to buy them, police had added in the appliance.
A crew of Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) officers may also question Atiq and Ashraf relating to their reference to Pakistan-based firearms sellers. The STF crew had recovered refined firearms from Atiq’s son Asad and one other assailant Ghulam, who had been killed an encounter in Jhansi on Thursday. The duo was utilizing automated pistols of foreign-make which aren’t simply out there in unlawful gun markets.
Earlier, on March 28, Atiq Ahmed was convicted by an MP-MLA courtroom in Prayagraj and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in the kidnapping case of now-deceased Umesh Pal.