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Umesh Pal murder: Shaista Parveen, three assailants still at large
Whereabouts of Atiq’s brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf’s wife, sister and her two daughters are also not known
Nearly two months after the February 24 sensational broad daylight murders of lawyer Umesh Pal and his two police guards, Prayagraj Police and the UP STF have still not succeeded in nabbing three remaining assailants who carry a reward of ₹5 lakh each on their heads besides slain gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed’s wife Shaista Parveen.
The assailants who are still at large are Guddu Muslim, Armaan and Sabir. Also, the whereabouts of Atiq’s brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf’s wife Zainab Ruby, sister Ayesha Noori and her two daughters, who are all wanted for allegedly helping the assailants, are still unknown.
Police officials said the location of Guddu Muslim was traced to different places, including Meerut, Delhi, Agra, Ajmer, Haryana, Kolkata and others but every time he escaped before police and STF teams reached there.
Armaan, who originally hails from Bihar, is suspected to be hiding in Bihar after travelling and hiding at different locations, they add. The cops say the police are now focusing on the arrest of Shaista Parveen and other assailants who have been absconding ever since the murders were committed.
Shaista did not even turn up for the burials of her son Asad, husband and brother-in-law fearing arrest. However, police say her recent location has been traced to Mariadih and other villages on the banks of the Ganga in Prayagraj and Kaushambi districts.
As per the police, they have launched a combing operation in ‘Kachhar’ (land along the river) area in search of Shaista Parveen who, cops say, may be accompanied by Ayesha Noori and a group of other women.
It was also suspected that Sabir was also accompanying Shaista Parveen to provide her security, police officials added. On the complaint of Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya Pal, Dhoomanganj police had registered a named FIR against Atiq Ahmed, his wife Shaista Parveen, younger brother Ashraf, sons and assailants Guddu Muslim, Armaan, Sabir and Ghulam Hasan.
A cash reward of ₹5 lakh each was declared on the five assailants, including Atiq’s third son Asad, while a cash reward of ₹50,000 was declared on the arrest of Shaista Parveen. The police gunned down Arbaaz, who was the driver of the car used by the assailants, on February 27 and Vijay Chaudhary aka Usman, who fired the first bullet on Pal, on March 6.
On April 13, Atiq’s son Asad and another shooter Ghulam Hasan were also killed in an encounter with the UP STF in Jhansi. Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead on April 15 night by three assailants while they were being brought for medical examination at Motilal Nehru (Colvin) Divisional Hospital in Prayagraj under police remand.
Earlier on March 21, the police arrested five henchmen of Atiq Ahmed and recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition along with ₹74 lakh cash from Atiq’s old office in Karbala area of Prayagraj.
Those arrested were also involved in conspiracy of Umesh Pal’s murder, police said. Another person Sadaqat Khan was arrested by STF earlier for his involvement in the conspiracy. On April 2, police arrested Atiq’s brother-in-law Akhlaq Ahmad from Meerut for helping and financing Guddu Muslim.
Police later made Akhlaq’s wife Ayesha Noori, her two daughters and Ashraf’s wife Zainab Ruby accused in the case and charged them with sheltering and financing the assailants.
Kaushambi Police on Thursday arrested Atiq Ahmed’s henchman Abdul Kavi’s elder brother Abdul Wali who was carrying a reward of ₹15,000 on his arrest and was wanted in cases registered under the Arms Act against him at Sara Akil police station.
SP Kaushambi Brajesh Kumar Srivastava said Abdul Wali was arrested while he was going to surrender in the court. His brother Abdul Kavi, who had been absconding in the 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case for a long time, surrendered before the special CBI court in Lucknow some days back.
