Supreme Court rejects Atiq Ahmed's plea seeking protection in Uttar Pradesh

In 2005, Umesh Pal, a witness in the 2005 murder case of BSP MLA Raju Pal was abducted. However, the case drew nationwide attention after Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his residence in Prayagraj on February 24 this year.

Ahmed was lodged in Sabarmati jail since June 2019 after the Supreme Court had in April that year directed that the 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 of a real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in jail. He is named in more than 100 criminal cases, police said.

He was shifted to Prayagraj on March 27 by UP Police.

Also read: Atiq Ahmed refuses to leave over ‘threat to life’ as UP Police reaches Sabarmati jail

Ahmed had moved the Supreme Court for protection, claiming that he and his family have been falsely implicated as accused in the Umesh Pal murder case in Prayagraj and he may be killed in a fake encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

In his plea, Ahmed said the Uttar Pradesh police were in all likelihood seeking his transit remand and police remand to take him from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj and he "genuinely apprehends that he may be eliminated during this transit period".

If one may recall, two of the accused in the case have already been eliminated in separate encounters by the U.P. police.