Hours after conviction, Atiq Ahmed leaves for Sabarmati jail by road

A police cavalcade carrying gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed left for the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat on Tuesday evening, hours after he was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in a 2006 kidnapping case by a court in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, a senior official said.

Ahmad was brought from the Sabarmati Central Jail by road for the hearing in the MP-MLA court in Prayagraj. He was kept at the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj before the hearing.

"As per the orders of the honourable court, Atiq Ahmad has left for Sabarmati Central Jail," Naini Jail Senior Superintendent Shashikant told PTI.

When asked about Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, who was acquitted in the case, Shashikant said he has "left for Bareilly".

Ashraf, lodged in the Bareilly District Jail since July 2020, was brought to the Naini Central Jail on Monday evening amid tight security arrangements for his production in the court.

A former Samajwadi Party MP from Phulpur, Ahmed was shifted to Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat in June 2019 following a Supreme Court order after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal from a prison in Uttar Pradesh.

Tuesday's conviction of Ahmed was his first in over 100 cases registered against him over the years.

Special MP-MLA court judge Dinesh Chandra Shukla held Ahmad, Saulat Hanif, a lawyer, and Dinesh Pasi guilty under IPC Section 364-A (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder) for kidnapping Umesh Pal in 2006.

"The court has awarded the three rigorous life imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine to each," government counsel Gulab Chandra Agrahari said.

The amount will be given to the family of Umesh Pal, a witness in the 2006 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case who was gunned down last month. Ahmed and his brother Ashraf are also accused in the murder case.