Atiq Ahmed remanded to 14-day judicial custody

A Prayagraj court sent gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf to 14-day judicial custody on Thursday in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case. The two were produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Gautam at 11:10 am amid heavy security and they remained in the court for over two hours as the arguments proceeded.

Ahmed and Ashraf, alias Khalid Azim, will be kept in Naini jail in Prayagraj till April 26, said advocate Vikram Singh, the counsel for Umesh Pal's wife Jaya, as quoted by news agency PTI.

Ahmed was on Wednesday brought to the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj from a Gujarat prison for the second time in about a fortnight to be produced in a court in the Umesh Pal murder case. The remand order comes as his son Asad was gunned down in an encounter with UP Special Task Force in Jhansi earlier today.

While Atiq Ahmed was brought to Prayagraj via road from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat for his production, his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf was brought from a Bareilly jail.

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.