Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government is set to spend Rs 1.34 crore to clear the allowances of the members and officials of the judicial commission probing the murder of gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj in April. A notification on the payment of allowances was issued by the state home department recently.
The five-member judicial commission includes former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale, former Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Virendra Singh, Justice (retired) Arvind Kumar Tripathi, former DGP Subesh Kumar Singh and former district judge Brijesh Kumar Soni.
According to the home department's order, Rs 30 lakh each is to be given to the chairman of the commission, former Chief Justice Bhonsle and vice-chairman of the commission, former Chief Justice Singh. Justice (retired) Tripathi, retired DGP Singh and retired district judge Soni will be paid Rs 20 lakh each.
This apart, Rs 5 lakh will be paid to amicus curie Rahul Agarwal appointed by the Commission of Inquiry while associate advocate Nikhil Mishra and additional advocate general Manish Goyal will be provided Rs 2 lakh and 7 lakh respectively for cooperating with the commission along with presenting the state government's side, the notification read.
Atiq and Ashraf were killed by three assailants at a government hospital where they had been taken for medical examination in Prayagraj on April 15. The two were in police custody remand in regard to the murder of Umesh Pal and his two securitymen.
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Soon after the incident a three-member commission was set up to probe into the case and later on, two other members were included. On April 28, the Supreme Court ordered the state government to submit a status report on the steps taken to probe into the two deaths.
