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Journalism of Courage
The killing of Umesh Pal, who was a witness in the January 2005 murder of then newly-elected Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal, saw an uproar in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Saturday.
As the Samajwadi Party (SP) raised the issue, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath accused the SP regime of promoting criminals and vowed to destroy “mafias and criminals such as former MP Atiq Ahmed”, who is the prime accused in the Raju Pal case.
Umesh, 48, was shot dead near his house in Dhoomanganj, Prayagraj, in circumstances similar to Raju Pal’s killing in the area in Prayagraj on January 25, 2005. Raju’s case is now being investigated by the CBI. A day after Umesh’s murder, the police registered an FIR naming Ahmed, who is currently in jail, his wife Sahista Parveen, his two sons, and younger brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, among others.
In an Assembly bypoll held in 2005 for the Allahabad West seat, Raju defeated Ashraf, who was contesting on an SP ticket. It was a big loss for the Ahmed family as the seat had fallen vacant after Atiq won the Lok Sabha seat from Allahabad in the 2004 general elections.
On January 25, 2005, Raju was returning home from a hospital along with his associates Sandeep Yadav and Devi Lal when assailants overtook their vehicle and opened fire, killing him near his house at Neeva crossing.
Due to several rounds of firing, people in the marketplace where the incident occurred ran for cover. Assailants also fired on another vehicle belonging to Raju Pal. Three other persons, identified as Ruksana, Saif alias Saifulla, and Om Prakash Pal, suffered bullet injuries.
Raju’s wife Pooja Pal – the two had got married just nine days earlier — lodged an FIR against Atiq, Ashraf and seven unidentified people on charges of rioting, attempt to murder, murder and criminal conspiracy.
The Prayagraj police filed a chargesheet against 10 people, including Atiq and Ashraf, in a local court on April 6, 2005. With the SP in power in Uttar Pradesh, in 2006, Pooja filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court seeking a CBI investigation into the case.
By 2007, the BSP had come to power in the state, led by Mayawati. In December 2008, the BSP government transferred the investigation to the state’s Crime Branch (CB)-CID. In its chargesheet, the agency named seven other accused in the case. In all, 17 persons were named in the chargesheets.
In 2011, Ashraf, absconding since the murder, with a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, was finally arrested.
In 2014, the Allahabad High Court finally decided on Pooja’s plea, dismissing her appeal for a CBI probe. Pooja then moved to the Supreme Court, which in January 2016, transferred the case to the CBI.
In August 2019, by when the BJP had come to power in UP, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 10 persons, including Atiq Ahmed and Ahsraf, and claimed that there was oral and documentary evidence against them such as Ashraf’s call records showing he was present at the crime scene.
The agency gave a clean chit to seven accused named by both the local police and later the state CB-CID. The agency said it did not find any evidence against them.
During its investigation, the CBI recorded statements of Raju’s associates who were present at the spot, local shopkeepers and bystanders. The witnesses had taken the names of 10 people, including Ashraf, said the probe agency.
Among the 10, one Nafees Kalia, alias Nafis Ahmad, is now dead.
The trial in the case has begun in a Lucknow court. On Thursday, 18 years after the incident, the statements of Pooja concluded.
After a stint in the BSP, Pooja is now an MLA of the SP – the same party to which her husband’s murder accused belonged.
She is also facing a murder charge, having been booked in 2019 along with six others in connection with the killing of a 25-year-old businessman in Civil Lines area of Prayagraj in 2016.
