LUCKNOW: More than 17 years after then BSP MLA Raju Pal was shot dead in UP’s Prayagraj, the case is tied up in knots following two related murders in the past week. Bizarrely, what has now followed is a photo war between the ruling BJP and the Samajwadi Party with the arrest of one of the main conspirators, Sadaqat Khan, in the killing last Friday of Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 murder.
Sadaqat was arrested by the UP Police’s Special Task Force from Gorakhpur and handed over to the Prayagraj police late Monday night. Sadaqat Khan was allegedly close to gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed’s family. Police sources said Sadaqat had been living illegally in the Muslim Boarding House, a hostel of Allahabad University. The plot to kill Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 murder of the then-sitting BSP MLA Raju Pal, was hatched in his room.
However, on Tuesday, the BJP leaders took to Twitter to flash an undated picture of Sadaqat Khan with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The SP responded by sharing another picture of Sadaqat seen with former BJP MLA Neelam Karwariya’s husband Uday Bhan Karwariya.
Describing the Samajwadi Party a “nursery of criminals”, UP Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak said the government had zero tolerance against crime. “We’re committed to ensuring that no matter what reach any criminal has, we won’t spare that person,” Pathak said in the Assembly.
On the other, BJP MLA from Prayagraj Siddharth Nath Singh said: “SP has protected people like him (Sadaqat Khan). SP should answer how many criminals they have nurtured.” Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav claimed that anyone could come up and get a photo clicked with a public figure.
The SP’s Ameeque Jamei also shared an image of Sadaqat with former BJP MLA Uday Bhan Karwariya.
On Monday, the UP Police gunned down a 24-year-old man who was wanted for his alleged role in the killing of Umesh Pal.