A Killing In Prayagraj

THE 2004 GENERAL Election was the high point of jailed politician and don Atiq Ahmed’s career. The controversial politician won from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket after five consecutive victories in the Allahabad (West) As­sembly seat. It was only natural that his brother Ashraf contested the bypoll in the Assembly seat Atiq vacated, a process seen as more nomination than election. But things did not go according to script. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nominee Raju Pal scored a major upset, winning the seat and inflicting a humiliating defeat on Atiq who was left smarting at losing on his turf. Raju Pal was barely able to savour his victory though as the political fight took a bloody turn with car-borne assailants shooting him dead a day before Republic Day 2005. The cost of challenging the reigning strongman was driven home in chilling fashion.

The murder of Raju Pal could well have been just another bloody blip on UP’s political firmament, fur­ther confirmation of the state’s long running saga of criminalised politics. In the subsequent bypoll, this time caused by Raju Pal’s death, Ashraf won by defeating Pal’s widow Puja. In 2005, SP was in office in UP and later became a key coalition partner of the Congress-led United Progressive Alli­ance (UPA). It did seem like all bases had been covered. Yet, somehow the case lingered, slowly catching up with Ahmed. In 2007, BSP won a majority in the UP state polls and Puja Pal, contest­ing on the party’s ticket, won against Ashraf in Allahabad (West). The new government led by BSP leader Mayawati transferred the investiga­tion to a specialised crime unit and a few years later, Ashraf, who was on the run, was finally arrested. Mean­while, Puja Pal’s plea for a Central Bu­reau of Investigation (CBI) probe, rejected by the Allahabad High Court, was upheld by the Supreme Court and the agency filed a chargesheet against Atiq and his brother.

The shots and bomb explosions that rang out on February 24 in the Dhoomanganj area of Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) brought the Raju Pal case back into the public space as Umesh Pal, a witness in the investigation, was shot dead while returning home from a court hearing. The shooting has been compared to the murder of Raju Pal himself but was messy even if it was just as brazen. Umesh Pal and his two gunners came under fire and CCTV recordings show Pal being chased by Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad into a narrow pas­sage where the victim struggled to prevent being shot at. A woman can be seen running from the scene of the scuffle followed by one of the gunners who is then attacked with a bomb. In the end, the wit­ness and both the gunners succumbed to their injuries. In another CCTV clip, one of the guards is seen emerging from the passage and collapsing followed by the smoke and dust of an explosion. Umesh Pal was declared dead from several bullet wounds sustained during his desperate but ill-fated attempt to flee his attackers.

The presence of Asad has intrigued the police as the accused made no attempt to cover their faces. There is a view that Asad emerged from a vehicle after Umesh appeared to have escaped the initial firing and ran towards a passage. But here again, the question arises as to why did a close family member of Atiq’s have to be present at the spot at all. Leads picked up by investigators indicate the shooting was planned with some people in Umesh Pal’s neigh­bourhood working as informants while there were ‘watchers’ on the way to Pal’s home from the court and internet calls kept the shoot­ers informed about the location of the victim. The motives behind the murder are being probed as the evi­dence tendered by Umesh Pal in the Raju Pal murder case had been re­corded and concluding arguments were underway. What then could be achieved by shooting Umesh Pal? In recent years, particularly since the Yogi Adityanath govern­ment assumed office in February 2017 and began a crackdown on political figures charged with seri­ous crimes, the influence of politi­cally affiliated dons has declined. Atiq is currently in Sabarmati Jail where he was moved on the Supreme Court’s orders after being accused of having organised the kidnapping and assault of a real-estate businessman. The attack on Umesh Pal and the presence of Asad at the scene of crime is seen as a likely attempt to revive the aura the jailed politician once enjoyed and also in­tended to send a message to other ‘witnesses’ who may consider testifying in any of the several cases pending against the clan. The police investigation is also battling speculative reports, most of which people close to the probe say are incorrect or downright fictitious. Accounts of certain cars being used to flee from the scene are being discounted with sources pointing out that some of the reports might be made part of writs to try and complicate the case. Given the sensitivity of the incident and its political over­tones, official statements are being issued on the basis of concrete developments like arrests. So far, there have been six arrests and accounts of those held point to Asad playing a key role in the events. The police have named Atiq, his wife Shaista Parveen, brother Khalid Azeem (Ashraf), two sons and some others in the case. It is understood that some discussion or planning took place in February in Bareilly jail where Ashraf is lodged where the ‘mu­laqat’ or meetings allowed to prisoners were used for the purpose. An investigation into the conduct of jail staff is on.

The Prayagraj killings found an immediate echo in the UP Assembly where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vigorously re­sponded to SP leader Akhilesh Yadav blaming the state govern­ment’s laxity for the murders. Adityanath said the mafia will be crushed (mitti me mila denge) and accused SP of nurturing crimi­nals and said Atiq Ahmed had received the opposition party’s support. “It was the Samajwadi Party that made him an MP. The policy of zero tolerance will soon show results. But who nurtured these mafia? You will nurture all kinds of mafia, garland them… And on the other hand you will also level accusations against us?” Adityanath said in the Assembly. Akhilesh accused the chief minister of not referring to Atiq Ahmed’s BSP connections as BJP was “friends” with Mayawati’s party, provoking Adityanath to ask whether SP’s role in promoting the don could be denied. SP is the protector of professional mafia and has learnt nothing apart from crime, the chief minister said, adding the mafia behind the Prayagraj killings are currently outside the state. “This is a case of thievery and being brazen about it (chori aur seena jori),” he said. The faultline is an old one and has often pitted Adityanath against SP when he was MP for Gorakhpur and fought a lone battle against politically affiliated criminal gangs. The chief min­ister’s image as a Hindutva warrior who cut an individualistic furrow was forged by his clashes with political opponents he took on in eastern UP. His preparedness to slug it out in a political landscape marked by frequent violence made him BJP’s choice for UP chief minister after the party won by a landslide in 2017. Not too long ago, prior to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise on the national scene, Adityanath was an outlier even within BJP with more ‘conventional’ leaders, resigned to BJP playing a subsidiary role to BSP, helming the party in the state.

Days after the shooting of Umesh Pal, the residence where Atiq Ahmed’s wife and two sons were staying was demolished for reported municipal violations as the policy of using bulldozers against properties of criminals continues. The municipal author­ity said notices served at the residence went unanswered and the electricity connection was in the name of the jailed politician’s wife. The deceased, Umesh Pal, had previously lodged a case alleg­ing that he had been kidnapped in 2006 in a bid to persuade him not to testify against the former MP. It was a hearing in this case that he had attended on the day he was killed. As noted earlier, his testimony in the Raju Pal case itself was complete. After her stint as a BSP MLA, Puja Pal lost to BJP candidates in subsequent elections and, ironically enough, switched to SP, the party that persons accused of killing her husband are associated with, and won the Chail Assembly seat in 2022. Investigations into the Umesh Pal murder are revealing threads of the conspiracy but the Prayagraj incident is evidence that the main combatants and key issues at stake in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls may not be too different from the discourse in 2014 and 2019.

Akhilesh YadavcrimePrayagrajSamajwadi PartyshootingUttar PradeshYogi Adityanath