New Delhi: Former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Harinarayan Rajbhar on Thursday, March 9, said gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed should be brought out of jail and killed in an encounter, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
Rajbhar’s provocative remark comes days after Ahmed’s two alleged aides, accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, were killed in separate encounters by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
According to police, one of the accused, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary alias Usman, was a wanted criminal with a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head. He was a resident of Prayagraj.
Expressing disquiet over the two encounters, BSP chief Mayawati asked if the Uttar Pradesh government will follow the rule of law or eliminate criminals on the streets.
Umesh Pal – who was a key witness in the murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal in 2005 – was gunned down on February 24 outside his home in Dhoomanganj in Prayagraj.
A day after the incident, UP police registered a first information report against Ahmed, his wife Sahista Parveen, their two sons, his younger brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, and others, news reports said.
According to the Indian Express, Ahmed was named in the murder case of Raju Pal.
Ahmed is currently lodged in a Gujarat jail in a 2016 case related to an assault on faculty members of an agricultural research institute in Prayagraj. He is a former MP and a five-time MLA.
“Atiq Ahmed conspired the murder [of Umesh Pal] while in jail. Atiq Ahmed has killed hundreds of people and forcibly occupied the land of the poor,” Rajbhar said, as per the report.
Rajbhar was elected to parliament in 2014 from Ghosi, which comes under Uttar Pradesh’s Mau district.
“Atiq Ahmed fears being killed in an encounter. There should be an encounter of all the shooters involved in the Umesh Pal murder case. An encounter of Atiq Ahmed should be carried out after bringing him out of jail. The doors of heaven will open in the future for the officer who carries out Atiq’s encounter,” he said.
Ahmed recently moved the Supreme Court, saying he feared for his life and that the UP Police will seek his remand in connection with the case and stage a fake encounter.
