Prayagraj police has recovered a huge quantity of illegal firearms and cash from the office of Atiq Ahmed, an alleged jailed mafia don, in the Chakia area of the city on Tuesday.
The police, led by police commissioner Ramit Sharma, raided the don’s abandoned office on Tuesday morning with a large police force after they received information that the gang members and their family have hidden their weapons and cash in this abandoned office, so that no one could doubt it.
It also reported that the weapons used in the murder of Umesh Pal were kept hidden here.
According to the police, the recovered illegal items included 11 pistols and cash worth several crores. Several hundred live cartridges along with a currency counting machine were also found in inside the Don’s office.
Meanwhile, Atiq Ahmed’s brother Ashraf got a big blow from Allahabad High Court. Ashraf, an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, had filed a petition in the High Court and demanded to direct the police to interrogate him inside the Bareilly jail premises.
In the petition Ashraf had expressed apprehension of untoward incident with himself on the way while travelling to Prayagraj. A request was also made in the HC to give instructions to appear in the court through video conferencing.
The Allahabad High Court bench, after hearing Ashraf’s petition, rejected all his demands. The court rejected the demand not to take Ashraf out of the jail premises and did not accept the demand of having five lawyers together at the time of questioning.
The court said that the police are free to interrogate the accused. In any case, the police can interrogate the accused according to the rules. The court directed for proper security arrangements when Ashraf was brought out of the jail premises.
The court said that if needed, the police can also ask for the custody of the accused and the government is responsible for the security arrangements of the accused at the time of custody. The court said that the government should provide necessary security to the accused at the time of custody.
According to the investigation on February 11, nine people including Asad, son of mafia Atiq Ahmed, met Ashraf in the district jail and planned to kill Umesh Pal. At present, four people have been identified by the SIT from the CCTV footage.
The murder of Umesh Pal was planned in the Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat, where Atiq Ahmed is lodged and in the District Jail of Bareilly, where Ashraf is staying . Umesh Pal was killed along with his 2 police gunners in Prayagraj on February 24 last.
Those whose faces have been recognized in the CCTV in the Bareilly jail include Atiq’s son Asad, who was leading the gang of shooters who killed Umesh. Others were Usman alias Vijay Chowdhary, Armaan and Ghulam.