'Tried to capture Asad alive': UP cops give encounter details

Uttar Pradesh Police tried to capture gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad's son Asad and his accomplice alive during the encounter in Jhansi but they opened indiscriminate fire at Special Task Force (STF) officials and were killed in retaliatory firing, according to the first information report (FIR) filed in the case.

The FIR was filed at Badagaon police station of Jhansi after the encounter on Thursday.

It said police teams had received a specific input that Asad and his aide Ghulam were seen in the area on Wednesday night. On Thursday, they were intercepted moving on a motorcycle without a registered number.

When police teams asked them to stop, they tried to sped away via an unpaved road and slipped into a roadside bush. However, the two were surrounded.

When Asad and Ghulam were confronted near the Parichha embankment, they abused the policemen loudly and opened fire at the policemen with an intent to kill, the FIR stated.

'The members of both the (STF) teams, who had surrounded them, tried to reach within their firing range without caring for their lives and tried to catch them alive, but had to return fire in self-defence in view of the indiscriminate firing from the miscreants,' it stated.

When the firing stopped from the other side, policemen approached the two and found they them wounded and wincing in pain.

They were identified through the pictures circulating in the media as Atiq Ahmad's son Asad and his aide Ghulam. Since there were still alive, the two were immediately rushed to a hospital for treatment.

When the team reached the hospital, they came to know that both had died, according to the FIR.

The FIR stated that a gun, empty shells, live cartridges, a motorcycle and other evidence were collected from the spot.

It said the police had received information that Asad and Ghulam were seen in Chirgaon township in Jhansi a night before the encounter.

Asad and Ghulam were accused in the Umesh Pal murder case and carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh each.

They had been absconding ever since Umesh Pal, a key witness in then Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal's murder case in 2005, was killed in February outside his home in Prayagraj.