NEW DELHI: Gangster-turned politician Atiq Ahmed on Wednesday rushed to the Supreme Court seeking to restrain Uttar Pradesh police from taking him from an Ahmedabad jail for questioning in connection with the daylight murder of Umesh Pal, in which he has been named as an accused.
In his petition, he quoted CM Adityanath’s ‘will decimate mafia’ statement in the assembly to plead that he feared being killed in a fake encounter by UP police if he was taken to any part of the state on the pretext of questioning in the Umesh Pal murder case. He said he is willing to be questioned by the UP police at Sabarmati Jail, where he wasshifted on orders of the Supreme Court in 2019.
The SC on April 22, 2019 had directed that Ahmed, a 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 on a real estate businessman, Mohit Jaiswal, while he was lodged in Deoria Jail of UP. On December 28, 2018, Jaiswal had filed an FIR stating that he was kidnapped from Lucknow and taken to a jail where he was assaulted by Ahmed and his aides and forced to transfer his business to them.
“There is a genuine and perceptible threat to the life of the petitioner and his family members,” Ahmed said, and sought protection by central forces.
In his petition, he quoted CM Adityanath’s ‘will decimate mafia’ statement in the assembly to plead that he feared being killed in a fake encounter by UP police if he was taken to any part of the state on the pretext of questioning in the Umesh Pal murder case. He said he is willing to be questioned by the UP police at Sabarmati Jail, where he wasshifted on orders of the Supreme Court in 2019.
The SC on April 22, 2019 had directed that Ahmed, a 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 on a real estate businessman, Mohit Jaiswal, while he was lodged in Deoria Jail of UP. On December 28, 2018, Jaiswal had filed an FIR stating that he was kidnapped from Lucknow and taken to a jail where he was assaulted by Ahmed and his aides and forced to transfer his business to them.
“There is a genuine and perceptible threat to the life of the petitioner and his family members,” Ahmed said, and sought protection by central forces.
