LUCKNOW: On the fifth day of the broad-daylight murder of Umesh Pal in front of his house allegedly by the henchmen of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad, the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) started demolishing the house of Atiq’s kin where his wife and two sons were living in Chakia under Kareli police station on Wednesday.
Significantly, Atiq, his wife Shaista Parveen, their two sons and his brother Ashraf, have been named in the Umesh Pal murder case. Umesh Pal was the prime witness in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case in which Atiq Ahmed and his brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf besides many close aides are prime accused.
In the daring shootout on Friday, February 24, Umesh Pal and one of his gunners Sandeep Nishad died while another security personnel Raghvendra Singh was battling for his life at SGPGIMS in Lucknow.
The house which was demolished by PDA on Wednesday allegedly belonged to one Khalid Jafar Ahmad where Shaista Parveen was residing currently along with her sons after Atiq Ahmad’s own house was raged in September 2020 for being “illegally constructed.”
Confirming the action, PDA vice-chairman Arvind Kumar Chauhan said that the building belonging to Jafar Ahmad was constructed in violation of set norms and was therefore being demolished. “Notice prior to demolition was issued to the owner and the requisite process was followed,” said Chauhan.
While Atiq Ahmed is lodged in Sabarmati jail in Gujarat, his brother Ashraf is in Bareilly Central Jail. The police claimed that Shaista Parveen was on the run as she had left Jafar Ahamd’s house the next day of Umesh Pal’s murder and raids were being conducted to trace her.
However, as per the sources, the power connection of the house under demolition is in the name of Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen. “We are looking if Atiq’s money was invested in the house which was in the name of Jafar Ahmed. For the last one year, Shaista Parveen had been staying in the house along with her children.
She shifted there after the district administration demolished her house over a year ago,” said a senior police official.
The sources also claimed that a large number of posters and banners of Shaista Parveen were found in the house during demolition.
On Monday, while hearing a petition filed by Shaista Parveen alleging the police “illegally” took away her two sons on February 24 after Umesh Pal’s murder and that she had no information about them since then, the court directed the Dhumanganj police station in Prayagraj to file a reply by Thursday.
Meanwhile, the police said that they were conducting raids to arrest five people, including Atiq’s son who is pursuing a law degree from an institute in Lucknow. The role of those five people had come to light as the police scanned CCTV footage of the murder spot. Even the main conspirator Sadakat Khan, who was arrested in Gorakhpur on Monday night, revealed the details of the conspiracy hatched in his room at the Muslim Boarding House of Allahabad University and also divulged inputs regarding the role of five persons including Atiq’s son in the killing.