Umesh Pal murder case: SC to hear Atiq Ahmed’s plea seeking protection on March 17

The Supreme Court said on Thursday that it would hear Atiq Ahmed’s petition for protection on March 17 and order that he not be transferred from central jail Ahmedabad to Prayagraj or any other district of Uttar Pradesh, fearing that he may be killed in a bogus encounter.

Atiq Ahmed’s case was listed before a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who accepted to hear it on March 17. Atiq Ahmed has petitioned the Supreme Court, requesting that the Centre protect his life and refrain from transporting him from the central jail in Ahmedabad to Prayagraj or any other area of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The petitioner said that he with his entire family has been roped in as accused persons in Dhoomanganj in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh in the murder case of one Umesh Pal. “Further, the Chief Minister of the State, without any investigation merely on the basis of suspicion, has made a statement on the floor of the State Assembly that the Petitioner will be destroyed and eliminated completely,” the petitioner said.
Therefore, there is a genuine and perceptible threat to the life of the Petitioner and his family members, the petitioner said.

In such circumstances, petitioner Ahmad stated that he is compelled to submit the current plea with the Court for the protection of his life because he really suspects and believes that he will be assassinated in phoney encounters on one pretext or another by UP police. The petitioner claimed that there was a widespread political plot against him and his family members.

The petitioner has asked the Court to provide any suitable direction to the Respondents in order to protect the Petitioner’s life, who has been charged in a FIR, from the open, direct, and immediate threat to his life posed by high State functionaries of the State of UP. The petitioner asked the respondent government of India to ensure the Petitioner’s safety and security, as well as that no physical or bodily violence or other harm be inflicted to the Petitioner and his family members named in the FIR.

The petitioner requested that an appropriate order be issued prohibiting the authority from transporting the Petitioner from Central Jail, Ahmedabad, to Prayagraj or any other part of the State of UP and conducting an interrogation of the Petitioner, if any, at Central Jail, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, or any other suitable place in Ahmedabad itself where the Petitioner is currently imprisoned under the protection of Gujarat Police as well as Central forces/paramilitary forces.

The petitioner has requested that the transit of the Petitioner from Ahmedabad to UP be directed under the protection of any central police force paramilitary force if the transit of the Petitioner is required to UP at all.

Ahmad said that he has no motive to kill Umesh Pal, who was the complainant in a separate case against him because the trial is going to end in next month and there was nothing left to be done by Umesh Pal in the trial of that matter.

“It was very well known to the rivals of Petitioner that if anything were to happen to Umesh Pal then Petitioner would certainly be the prime suspect in view of the pending case against him by Umesh Pal and he will be made an accused. The same has been done,” read the petition.