Lucknow: While seeking the custody remand of Atiq Ahmed, the Uttar Pradesh police submitted in a Prayagraj court Thursday that the gangster-turned-politician had told them about his links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a claim his lawyers have denied.
This comes at a time when opposition parties are raising questions on the ‘encounter’ killings of Atiq’s son Asad Ahmed and his accomplice Ghulam Mohammed.
Atiq’s lawyers told ThePrint Friday that during the hearing, he denied making any such statement before the police, and that the latter’s version was not admissible in court under Section 25 of the Evidence Act as it is yet to be backed by evidence.
The chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court allowed a four-day remand for the accused starting Thursday till 5 pm on 17 April.
Meanwhile, in the now viral remand order issued Thursday, the CJM court noted the grounds on which the Prayagraj police sought the custody remand of Atiq and his brother Ashraf, both accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. Pal, a BJP leader, was shot dead on 24 February this year.
Pal was one of the witnesses in the 2005 daylight murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal, allegedly gunned down by Atiq’s men in 2005.
While no one from the UP police was ready to comment on the veracity of the order available on social media, lawyers associated with the case confirmed it was authentic.
Commenting on the police statement in court, one of Atiq’s lawyers, Dayashankar Mishra, told ThePrint, “This police statement in the application submitted in court is merely their (police’s) version and not admissible. During the arguments, Atiq denied having told anything to the police.”
He added, “The police may claim in future that Atiq was an associate of Osama Bin Laden but it has to be backed by evidence under Section 25 of the Evidence Act. Atiq told the court that he had made no such statement before the police,” he said.
According to the contents of the remand application noted in the order, the police told court that in his statement recorded Wednesday under CrPC 161 (allows for examination of witnesses), Atiq told them of having “direct links with ISI and LeT” and purportedly explained the manner in which the conspiracy to murder Pal was hatched inside Sabarmati jail.
Atiq and Ashraf were brought from the Sabarmati and Bareilly jails to Prayagraj respectively on 12 April. Hours later, on Thursday, a team of the UP Special Task Force (STF) shot dead Atiq’s third son and his accomplice Ghulam, who were identified by Prayagraj police as shooters in the case.
‘Used Facetime/Whatsapp calls’
In the remand application, police submitted in court that Atiq told them about the planning of Umesh Pal’s murder.
“My wife would come to meet me in the Sabarmati jail when I asked her to buy a mobile and a SIM card each for Ashraf and I. I told her the name of the official through whom the mobile could reach me and also told her to inform Ashraf about the same…so he could collect his mobile and SIM card through some jail official (in Bareilly),” the police have quoted Atiq as saying in their application.
“It was decided that while in jail, we will continue to speak to each other via Facetime/internet/WhatsApp calls and will hatch the conspiracy for Umesh’s murder because these calls can’t be traced in surveillance,” Atiq further said, according to the police.
“Shaista told (me) that Umesh is always accompanied by two police personnel but I said Raju Pal too used to have several police officers with him…After this, I spoke to Shaista in detail about ensuring coordination among the men (involved in the murder), on accessing arms, hideout for the arms after the murder and hideouts for the men on the run,” the application went on to say.
‘Bade, Chote, Thakur & Gullu’
The police claimed that Atiq also told them about code names he gave to the accused in the crime. For instance, he allegedly used “bade for himself, and chhote for Ashraf, Thakur for his son Asad, and Gullu for shooter Ghulam”, read their application.
The police further claimed that Atiq told them that with him and Ashraf in jail, “I told the men they should connect with Shaista and Asad for information on the location of bombs.”
In their application, the police quoted Atiq as saying, “I have no dearth of arms because I have a direct connection with Pakistani agency ISI and terror organisation LeT. Arms from Pakistan are dropped in Punjab via drones which are then collected by local connections. From the same lot, arms are supplied to terrorists in J&K. If you take me along, I can help recover these arms and cartridges.”
The police also mentioned in their remand application that during the recording of his statement under CrPC 161 Thursday, Ashraf had told them that all the arms used in Umesh Pal murder case were kept in one place except a .45 bore pistol because the accused were in a hurry to leave the city and that pistol was handed over to one Kallu, a resident of Kareli area.
While allowing a four-day remand of the brothers, the court said, “The accused will not be subjected to any kind of inhumane treatment by the police nor will they be harassed by the cops in any manner.”
It added that the accused could have their lawyers with them, but the latter “will maintain a distance of 100 metres from the police and would merely watch the proceedings and not interfere in the activity”.
It also directed the police to send Atiq and Ashraf to the Sabarmati and Bareilly jails respectively, immediately after the court proceedings.
Mayawati cites Vikas Dubey death
Meanwhile, opposition parties have hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government for the encounter killings and demanded a thorough probe into all encounters in connection with the case.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the government was trying to divert the attention of the people from real issues with fake encounters and that the BJP doesn’t believe in courts.
“A deep probe should be carried out in the encounters of today and earlier and the guilty should not be spared. It is not the government’s prerogative to judge what’s right, what’s not. The BJP is against brotherhood,” he wrote on Twitter Thursday.
BSP chief Mayawati raked up the ‘encounter’ killing of gangster Vikas Dubey in 2020. “Multiple discussions are going on about the encounter killing of Atiq Ahmed’s son and an aide. People feel their suspicion of this being a repeat of the Vikas Dubey incident has come true. Hence, a high-level probe is important to bring the facts and reality of the incident before the public,” she tweeted late Thursday.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)