Prayagraj (UP): The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by slain gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad's son Ali Ahmad, seeking security in jail due to apprehensions of a "threat" to his life.
In his petition, Ali Ahmad had requested the court to conduct the hearing of his case through video-conferencing for security reasons. He had also said if needed, he could be interrogated on the premises of the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj, where he is currently lodged. When the matter was taken up by the court, no one appeared on behalf of the petitioner, even though the cause list was revised.
Taking note of it, a division bench of Justices Vivek Kumar Birla and Vinod Diwakar observed in its decision dated December 13: "This writ petition has been filed seeking a direction to the state respondents for providing protection to the life and liberty of the petitioner and ensuring that no physical or bodily injury or any other harm is caused to the petitioner. However, in such circumstances, the instant writ petition is dismissed for want of prosecution."
Earlier, a division bench of the court, in an order dated June 20, granted two weeks to the petitioner's counsel for filing a supplementary affidavit indicating the apprehensions on the basis of which the petition was filed. In his petition, Ali Ahmad had sought security, especially when warrants issued by a court are served to him, asking him to appear before the court concerned.
Ali Ahmad's name had cropped up during the investigation of the Umesh Pal murder case. Pal and his two police security guards --? Sandeep Nishad and Raghvendra Singh --? were shot dead on February 24 outside Pal's home in the Dhoomanganj police station area of Prayagraj.
On a complaint submitted by Pal's wife Jaya, a case was lodged at the Dhoomanganj police station against Atiq Ahmad, his brother Ashraf, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam and nine others. In April, gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists during a media interaction while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup.
