LUCKNOW: In a major breakthrough, one of the most wanted members of the Atiq Ahmad gang Abdul Saddam was arrested by the special task force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police in Delhi's Malviya Nagar locality in the wee hours on Thursday. Saddam was wanted in connection with the murder of Umesh Pal, the lawyer who was killed by Atiq's gang in Prayagraj in February.
The UP STF nabbed Saddam in Delhi when he went to meet his girlfriend on Thursday. Saddam is the brother of Zainab, Ashraf’s wife. Ashraf was killed along with gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad while they were being taken to hospital for a routine check-up in police custody in Prayagraj in April.
Saddam had played an instrumental role in hatching the conspiracy of the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal. As per police sources, Saddam had facilitated the meeting between Ashraf and Umesh Pal's assailants in Bareilly jail where Ashraf was lodged.
Saddam, an active member of the Atiq gang, has two cases registered against him in Bareilly. One case was registered at Bithari Chainpur police station for the illegal meeting with Ashraf and the other at Baradari police station for fraudulently taking a house and theft. Saddam had been on the run in both cases and the ADG Bareilly zone had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh on him.
According to Special DG (SDG) (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar, Abdul Saddam was apprehended at approximately 2 am from a DDA apartment located across the Select City Walk mall in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar while he was visiting his girlfriend Anam.
Recently, Bithari Chainpur police had started the process of attachment of Saddam’s properties and pasted a notice under Section 82 at his house in Prayagraj. Along with this, police teams were constantly engaged in tracking his location. On Thursday, the Bareilly unit of the STF got success in netting the criminal in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar area. He was taken to Bareilly.
During the interrogation, Abdul Saddam informed the STF that he had been shifting locations in Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra to avoid arrest. A police official mentioned that he had resided in Khusbhu Enclave, Bareilly, at the time his sister’s husband Ashraf was incarcerated in Bareilly jail.
Recently, images of Abdul Saddam in Dubai had surfaced, leading to speculation that he had fled the country. However, according to police, those photos were older ones and Saddam had deliberately uploaded them on social media to mislead the police authorities. He had been residing in Delhi for an extended period by constantly shifting locations. Subsequently, based on intelligence inputs, the STF arrested him in the national capital.