Lucknow: UP Special Task Force (STF) and Prayagraj police on Sunday arrested a lawyer of slain gangster Atiq Ahmed and his younger brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf in the Umesh Pal murder case.
Confirming the arrest of the lawyer, Vijay Kumar Mishra, Prayagraj city DCP Deepak Bhuker said the former was wanted by the Dhoomanganj police in the murder case. “Further investigations are on,” he added.
This is the second arrest of a lawyer in Atiq’s team for the February 24 murder of Umesh Pal. The main lawyer, Khan Saulat Haneef, was arrested earlier.
Umesh Pal, who was also a lawyer, was the main witness in the 2005 murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal. He was shot dead in broad daylight along with his two security guards outside his house in Sulemsarai area under the limits of Dhoomanganj police station in Prayagraj on February 24 this year. Atiq and Ashraf were the main accused in the murders of both Raju and Umesh. The gangster duo was shot dead by three assailants when they were being taken to Colvin hospital here for a medical test on April 15 this year.
Dhoomanganj police claimed that Mishra was arrested on the basis of Hanif’s statements. During interrogation, Haneef gave details of Mishra’s involvement in the murder, and electronic evidence, including his call detail records, pointed out that Mishra was leaking information about Umesh’s movements to Atiq and his accomplices, police sources said. They added that enough evidence to nail Mishra had been collected.
Hanif’s name was added in the Umesh Pal murder case in April and he was arrested under IPC section 120-B (criminal conspiracy). “Hanif was accused of sharing pictures of Umesh Pal with Atiq’s son Asad, the main shooter, days before Umesh was attacked and killed,” police sources said.
