Mayawati calls Atiq Ahmed SP product, says will expel wife if found guilty in Prayagraj killings

A day after Umesh Pal and his police guard was shot dead in Prayagraj, the police Saturday had lodged an FIR against Ahmed, who is currently in a Gujarat jail, Parveen, their sons, his younger brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, and others.

“It is a well-known fact that Atiq Ahmed is a Samajwadi Party product and he was MP and MLA from that party. Also, Raju Pal’s wife too has switched over from the BSP to the SP, the party she had been calling the main culprit,” she said.

In another tweet, Mayawati said the BSP never punishes any innocent family member or community because of somebody else’s crime. “But this is also a fact that party does not encourage a criminal element of any caste and religion.”

The BSP had inducted Parveen into the party on January 5 to field her for the mayoral polls in Prayagraj.

However, a formal announcement about her candidature was put on hold when the local body polls were delayed to complete the exercise of the OBC survey for reservation.

On Saturday, when the SP raised the murder of Umesh Pal in Vidhan Sabha, Adityanath had said his government will destroy “mafias and criminals” like Atiq Ahmed, the main accused in the 2005 murder case.

When Adityanath accused the SP of sheltering criminals and mafias, Akhilesh Yadav said, “In my party? Tell me which party is he (criminal) a member of. Since you have a friendship with the Bahujan Samaj Party, you are not taking the name of the BSP.”

Yadav’s remark was seen in the context of Ahmed’s wife Parveen who had joined the BSP in January.

The UP chief minister had also said the criminal who carried out the Prayagraj murder was out of the state and was repeatedly elected MLA and MP with the SP’s support. “Is it not true that in 1996 the mafia was elected MLA from Allahabad West seat with the support of the Samajwadi Party? That mafia was again elected MP in 2004 with SP support,” Adityanath had said.