Till a fortnight back, a young Asad Ahmed did not have any criminal case lodged against him. But, now, he is the ‘most wanted’ man in Uttar Pradesh after leading half-a-dozen shooters who killed Umesh Pal in broad daylight on a busy street in Prayagraj on February 24.
Multiple police teams are on his hunt while two other shooters have now been eliminated in encounters, the second one being a man named Usman. Asad is the third son of gangster-cum-politician Atiq Ahmed and is said to have taken the reins of Atiq’s dreaded gang last August after his two elder brothers had surrendered in court.
Sources in the UP Police told News18 that Asad used to operate from Lucknow, from where he had passed out from Class 12 from a top school but could not go abroad for further studies as his passport was not cleared due to his family’s criminal history. He was not on the police radar till he was captured in CCTV shooting at Umesh Pal.
Asad now has the highest reward (of Rs 2.5 lakh) than on any of his other family members in the past. His father Atiq Ahmed is lodged in Sabarmati jail in Gujarat while his uncle Ashraf is lodged in UP’s Bareilly jail. In their absence, Atiq’s two elder sons, Umar and Ali, ran the dreaded gang in the last few years while Asad was studying.
The police suspect that Asad took instructions from Atiq and Ashraf from jail over calls to plan the murder of Umesh Pal with whom the Ahmed family has a long-standing rivalry. Asad is said to have rallied the other shooters and is seen in the CCTV images while emerging from a SUV and shooting at Umesh Pal with a pistol.
Asad Took Over Gang After Elder Brothers Jailed
Umar, Atiq’s eldest son, came into the limelight in 2018 when he kidnapped a property dealer in Lucknow, Mohit Jaiswal, and took him to Deoria jail where Atiq Ahmed was lodged and Jaiswal was assaulted for not paying up extortion money. Ali, Atiq’s number two son, also has cases for attempted murder and extortion against him.
After rewards were declared on both of them by investigating agencies, the two brothers had surrendered in courts last year in July in quick succession fearing they may be eliminated in encounters. It is then that Asad took over the reins of the gang, UP police officials suspect.
Atiq has two more sons, Azham and Aban, who are minors and are studying in Class 10 and 8 respectively.
Azham and Aban are presently lodged in a juvenile centre after the police said they found them roaming aimlessly after the murder of Umesh Pal while their mother Shaista Praveen filed an application in court that the police had taken them away from her home. Praveen, too, is an accused in the Umesh Pal case and is said to be missing.
Some suspect that Asad may have escaped to Nepal after killing Umesh Pal. The UP Police has launched a big manhunt for him.
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