The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by Ali Ahmad, the son of the late gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad, who sought security in jail due to concerns about a potential “threat” to his life.
In his petition, Ali Ahmad urged the court to conduct the hearing of his case via video-conferencing for security reasons. He also expressed willingness to be interrogated on the premises of the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj, where he is presently incarcerated.
During the court proceedings, no representative appeared on behalf of the petitioner, despite a revised cause list. Noting this, a division bench comprising Justices Vivek Kumar Birla and Vinod Diwakar, in their decision dated December 13, remarked, “This writ petition has been filed seeking a direction to the state respondents for providing protection to the life and liberty of the petitioner and ensuring that no physical or bodily injury or any other harm is caused to the petitioner. However, in such circumstances, the instant writ petition is dismissed for want of prosecution.”
In a prior order dated June 20, a division bench of the court had granted two weeks to the petitioner’s counsel to submit a supplementary affidavit outlining the basis for the apprehensions that led to the filing of the petition.
Ali Ahmad, in his plea, had sought security, particularly when court-issued warrants required his appearance before the relevant court. His name had come up during the investigation of the Umesh Pal murder case, where Pal and his two police security guards, Sandeep Nishad and Raghvendra Singh, were fatally shot on February 24 outside Pal’s residence in the Dhoomanganj police station area of Prayagraj.
Following a complaint by Pal’s wife Jaya, a case was registered at the Dhoomanganj police station against Atiq Ahmad, his brother Ashraf, two sons, associates Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.
In April, Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at close range by three individuals posing as journalists during a media interaction, while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup.
