2007 kidnapping case: UP court to pronounce judgment against Atiq, others on March 28

Eight prosecution witnesses were examined by court, said district government counsel Gulab Chand Agrihari.

The state police, which investigated the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal before the CBI took over the probe, had made Umesh a witness in the case.

Atiq, a former MP along with Ashraf and others was named as accused in the Raju Pal murder case in which trial is pending in court. In the 2007 kidnapping case, Umesh had alleged that Atiq with the help of his associates kidnapped and threatened him to make him change his statement in the court.

Atiq is lodged in a jail in Gujarat while Ashraf is in a Bareilly prison.

In 2007, Umesh Pal, then a zila panchayat member, had filed a police complaint stating that he was a witness in the murder case of Raju Pal which took place in Dhoomanganj area on January 25, 2005.

Umesh alleged after he refused to follow Atiq’s direction, he (Atiq) and his associates kidnapped him on gunpoint while he was going on a motorcycle on February 28, 2006.

On Umesh’s complaint, an FIR was lodged against Atiq, Ashraf and four unidentified persons at the Dhoomanganj police station. Later, the police found the role of six more persons and filed a chargesheet against 11 people.

Barring Atiq, Ashraf and one Farhan, the other accused are out on bail.

The police claim to have killed two persons linked to Umesh Pal’s murder case in separate encounters. One person was arrested and police have declared a reward on six other accused, including Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen.

For nearly four decades now, the 60-year-old has had a run of the state, straddling the permeable world of crime and politics, shifting from this party to that, contesting and winning elections, even while being a certified “history-sheeter”, notching up almost 100 cases against himself and, as per the latest police records, running a gang with “144 members”.