Exclusive: Gangster's Son Had Plans To Attack Father's Convoy. It Wasn't To Free Him

Murder accused Asad Ahmed and Ghulam, gunned down in Jhansi on Thursday by the Uttar Pradesh police, planned to attack the convoy transporting dreaded gangster-turned-politician, and Asad's father, Atiq Ahmed, top sources said today. They didn't plan to break Atiq free as the security was tight, but would have fired a few rounds at the convoy to sensationalise the case to embarrass the Uttar Pradesh government, sources said.

Asad and his co-accused wanted questions to be raised on Atiq's security so that his transfer from Sabarmati jail in Gujarat to UP would be halted, they said.

After the murder of Umesh Pal, it had become difficult for Atiq and his brother Ashraf to ensure the safety of Asad, sources said, adding that Atiq had also sought help from his acquaintances to protect his son.

Sources said Asad had a meeting with his uncle Ashraf for over two hours on February 11, the day that his father and two others were sentenced to life imprisonment after a court in Prayagraj found them guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case.

The plan to kill Umesh Pal was hatched on February 11, they said. Eight associates of Asad were also present in the meeting, reportedly arranged in collusion with prison authorities, with Ashraf in Bareilly jail. There were no security cameras at the spot. Umesh Pal was murdered 13 days later.

Atiq and Ashraf have confessed to the meeting, police sources said.

Umesh Pal, the key witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, and his police security guards Raghavendra Singh and Sandeep Nishad, were shot dead outside his home in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj on February 24.

After Umesh Pal's murder on February 24, Asad hid at a house in Prayagraj for a day, police sources said. He went to Kanpur on February 26 on a motorcycle, then to Delhi's Anand Vihar on a bus, and stayed at Jamia Nagar and Sangam Vihar areas in the south of the national capital.

Asad left for Ajmer in Rajasthan on March 15 and headed to Mumbai later, after which he travelled to Jhansi through Nashik and Kanpur. He stayed for a few days at all of these places, police sources said.

Asad didn't travel by train and kept using buses or other means of road transport for his almost 4,000 km journey. Most of his time was spent in commute.

Sources said a man named Haidar, who is currently lodged in Bareilly prison, helped Asad hide in Delhi. Police have arrested three of Haidar's associates from Delhi.

On March 28, Atiq Ahmed was convicted by an MP-MLA court and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in the abduction case of now-dead Umesh Pal. Atiq Ahmed and his family came under the scanner as CCTV footage showed how Mr Pal was murdered by indiscriminate firing and a bomb blast. 19-year-old Asad was seen chasing Umesh Pal with a gun in hand.

Atiq Ahmed, who has over 100 cases against him over the last 43 years, has been convicted in the same case.