Asad Ahmad was killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh police.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh of carrying out a "fake encounter" to kill the son of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his associate in Jhansi. He alleged that the ruling party was trying to divert the attention of the people from the real issues plaguing the state.
Mr Yadav said the BJP government did not believe in the courts and was taking the law into its own hands. He said it was not right for those in power to pass judgement on who was right or wrong and to decide who should live or die.
"With fake encounters, the BJP government is trying to divert attention from the real issues. The BJP does not believe in courts at all. Today's and recent encounters should also be thoroughly investigated and the culprits should not be spared. Those in power do not have the right to decide what is right or wrong. BJP is against harmony," Mr Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
The former Chief Minister was commenting on the killing of Ahmad's son Asad and an accomplice, both wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Police in Jhansi on Thursday, officials said.
According to the police, Asad and Ghulam were trying to flee on a motorcycle when they were intercepted by a Special Task Force team in Jhansi. They opened fire on the personnel and were killed in retaliatory firing. The police claimed to have recovered sophisticated foreign-made weapons from them.
The encounter took place on a day Ahmad was presented before a court in Prayagraj in the same murder case and was sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder case of then BSP MLA Raju Pal, and his two police security guards were shot dead outside his home in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj area on February 24 this year.