Raju Pal Murder: Seventh convict surrenders in CBI court
Raju Pal was gunned down on January 25, 2005, in Prayagraj due to political rivalry with Atiq Ahmad’s brother Ashraf, whom he had defeated in the 2004 bypoll for the Allahabad West assembly seat.
LUCKNOW: In the high-profile Raju Pal murder case, the seventh convict, Israr Ahmad, surrendered before the special CBI court in the state capital on Monday.
On March 29, the special CBI court had sentenced Israr Ahmad and the other six convicts to life imprisonment. However, as Israr was absconding, the court did not announce his sentence but issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him.
Additional district judge Kavita Mishra, presiding over the special CBI court, convicted Abid Pradhan, Javed, Ranjeet Pal, Abdul Kavi, Gulhasan, Mohammed Farhan, and Israr Ahmad under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting by using a weapon), 149 (committing a crime for a common object), 302 (murder), and 307 (attempt to murder). The court also imposed a fine of ₹1.90 lakh each on all the murder convicts.
Following the court’s order, the police conducted raids in several locations in Prayagraj to nab Israr, but he remained elusive.
“Israr Ahmad surrendered before the special CBI court today. The court has sent him to jail custody and ordered to produce him before the court on April 4 for the pronouncement of his life sentence in open court,” said advocate Manoj Tripathi, district government counsel (Crime).
Raju Pal was gunned down on January 25, 2005, in Prayagraj due to political rivalry with Atiq Ahmad’s brother Ashraf, whom he had defeated in the 2004 bypoll for the Allahabad West assembly seat. Although the BSP leader had previously lost the election to the same seat against Atiq Ahmad in 2002, Pal emerged victorious in the subsequent bypoll after Atiq vacated the seat upon being elected to the Lok Sabha.
Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad was also implicated in the same case, but legal proceedings against him and his brother Khalid Azim, alias Ashraf, ceased after they were killed by three assailants posing as journalists outside a hospital in Prayagraj on April 15 last year.
