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Prayagraj civic body demolishing house of Shaista Parveen, says it was illegal
PDA vice-chairman Arvind Kumar Chauhan said the house was being demolished because it was illegally constructed in violation of the norms
PRAYAGRAJ: The Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) on Wednesday started demolishing the two-storey house in Chakia locality where Shaista Parveen, wife of mafioso-politician Atiq Ahmad, lived.
PDA vice-chairman Arvind Kumar Chauhan said the house was being demolished because it was illegally constructed in violation of the norms. “Notice was issued to the owner and all the required process was followed,” Chauhan told reporters as a team of civic officials and police personnel reached Prayagraj’s Chakia locality with a bulldozer.
Parveen, her husband Atiq Ahmad and their two sons are accused in the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal who was shot dead outside his house in Prayagraj’s Sulem Sarai area on February 24. Police said Umesh Pal was a prime witness in the 2005 murder of lawmaker Raju Pal in which Atiq and his younger brother Khalid Azeem alias Ashraf were the prime accused.
On Wednesday morning, the PDA team first pulled down the boundary wall of the house before workers started bringing out the household items and furniture inside to prepare for the demolition.
People familiar with the matter said Shaista Parveen shifted to this house after Atiq Ahmad’s house, also located in Chakia, was demolished in September 2020, also on the ground that it was “illegally constructed”.
Shaista Parveen has alleged that she and her family members were being framed in the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal because she was to be the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) mayoral candidate for Prayagraj. She joined the BSP in January.
A first information report was registered against 17 people for the murder on a complaint by Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya. The police complaint names Atiq Ahmad, wife Shaista Parveen and sons, Atiq’s younger brother Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf, among others. They were booked under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, police said.
