Atiq’s lawyer held in Umesh Pal murder case, police say ex-MP’s 2 sons also had role

Both Umar and Ali are lodged in jail in connection with different cases.

The Prayagraj police said that Vijay Mishra, who was arrested from outside a hotel in Lucknow, was in regular touch with Atiq’s younger brother Khalid Azim, alias Ashraf, who was the prime accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, when he was lodged in a Bareilly jail.

“When Umesh’s murder conspiracy was being hatched, Vijay Mishra spoke to Ashraf several times on his cellphone that he was using in the jail,” said a police officer.

Mishra, a resident of Prayagraj, was representing former MP Atiq, the prime accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, and his family members in court.

“Mishra was absconding for a long time. We arrested him from Lucknow acting on a tip-off,” said Prayagraj Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Bhuker.

With his arrest, the Prayagraj police have arrested 10 people in Pal’s murder case.

Also, the Prayagraj police had booked Vijay Mishra for allegedly threatening Mohammad Saeed, a local businessman, and trying to extort Rs 3 crore from him “in the name of Atiq and his associates” nearly two months back. A case was lodged at the Atarsuiya police station in Prayagraj in this connection.

Another police officer said, “During the probe, we found that the Umesh Pal murder accused, Guddu Muslim, Ghulam Hassan and Sadakat Khan met Ali in the Naini central jail after and before meeting Ashraf in the Bareilly jail. This was when the murder conspiracy was being hatched. Atiq’s other son Asad Ahmed met Umar in a Lucknow jail in this connection.”

Directions have been issued to secure warrants for Ali and Umar in Umesh Pal murder case, he added.

While Sadakat Khan was arrested in May, Guddu Muslim is absconding. Asad and Ghulam were gunned down by the police in an encounter in Jhansi in April. Two days later, Atiq and Ashraf were shot dead outside a government hospital in Prayagraj where they were brought for their medical examination.

The two were in police custody remand in Umesh Pal murder case.

Umar, the eldest of Atiq’s five sons, had surrendered before a court in Lucknow in October last year in connection with a case abduction of a businessman in 2018. Ali, Atiq’s second son, surrendered in July last year in a case of assault on a property dealer in the Kareli area of Prayagraj in December 2021.

Besides Atiq, Ashraf and Asad, three other accused in the Umesh Pal murder case — Arbaaz, Vijay Chaudhary, alias Usman and Ghulam Hassan — have died.