Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad, who is wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, was killed in an encounter on Thursday by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Jhansi. Another accused in the case, Ghulam, with a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on his head, was also killed in the encounter led by Deputy SP Navendu and Deputy SP Vimal. UP STF ADG Amitabh Yash said the team had been tracking Asad and Ghulam for the last one and a half months. He said they had last missed Gulam by a delay of just five minutes but they successfully traced him to Jhansi where he was killed in the encounter.
The killing of Asad in an encounter comes on a day when Atiq Ahmad and his brother were produced before a Prayagraj court in connection with the case. The gangster was brought to Prayagraj via road from Ahmedabad's Sabarmati jail for his production in court. His brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf was brought from Bareilly jail. Umesh Pal was a witness in the 2005 killing of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker Raju Pal in which Ahmad is an accused. On February 24, Umesh Pal and his two security guards were shot dead outside his home in Prayagraj. Based on a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against Ahmad, Ashraf, their family members and others. The FIR was lodged under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.