Court denies anticipatory bail to Atiq’s wife in Umesh Pal murder case

In her anticipatory bail application, Shaista Parveen had stated that she is innocent and has been falsely implicated in this case.

PRAYAGRAJ The MP/MLA court of Prayagraj on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case. The court observed that “she has been named as an accused in the FIR. Besides, her role (in the murder conspiracy) has also been mentioned in the FIR itself”. In his five-page order, special judge Dinesh Chandra Shukla said, “Taking into consideration facts, circumstances and nature of the offence, the anticipatory bail application is rejected.”

The court observed that ‘she has been named as an accused in the FIR’. (HT Photo)

In her anticipatory bail application, Shaista Parveen had stated that she is innocent and has been falsely implicated in this case. Her lawyer added that that there is no motive for her to kill Umesh Pal as ‘he was not a witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case’, the trial of which is pending before the CBI court at Lucknow.

Shaista, who recently joined the Bahujan Samaj Party, further said that she was implicated for political vendetta. “I was the proposed candidate of the party for the forthcoming election of Prayagraj mayor. Hence, some people with political motives, who were eying the mayor post, were not happy with my Dalit-minority voter base. They hatched a conspiracy to remove my family members and I from the political landscape,” she alleged.

However, opposing the anticipatory bail application, the district government counsel (criminal), Gulab Chadra Agrahri, said that the applicant (Shaista) is one of the seven accused persons in the murder case of Umesh Pal. “As she is an accused of a very serious offence like murder, it would not be fit to grant her pre-arrest bail,” he said.

Umesh Pal and his two police security guards -- Sandeep Nishad and Raghvendra Singh -- were shot dead on February 24 outside his home in the Dhoomanganj police station area of Prayagraj. On a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya Pal, a criminal case under section 302 (murder), 120B (conspiracy) and other sections of the IPC was registered at Dhoomanganj police station against Atiq, his wife Shaista Parveen, Atiq’s brother Ashraf, two sons, and aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam.

In the FIR, victim’s wife and complainant Jaya Pal said that her husband was eliminated by Atiq, his wife Shaista, and his brother Ashraf.