HC dismisses gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's bail plea

The Allahabad High Court today dismissed a bail application of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, who has been in jail for more than three months after being arrested here for criminal trespass and assault on staff members of an university.
A single judge bench of Justice Pratyush Kumar rejected the bail plea pointing towards the fact that Ahmed was named in more than 70 criminal cases.
Ahmed has been accused of assault on staff members of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), situated on the outskirts of the city.
He had allegedly barged into SHUATS' campus, along with a number of supporters, last December and beat up those who opposed their unlawful entry.

He was arrested on February 11 after the district police was rapped by the court for its failure to nab him more than a month after lodging of the FIR.
Initially lodged at the Naini Central Jail near here, he was shifted to Deoria after a change of regime in Uttar Pradesh.

Ahmed, who has been associated with the Samajwadi Party, is a former MP from Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.
Meanwhile, another single judge bench of Justice Vipin Sinha today reserved its judgement on a petition seeking cancellation of the bail granted to Ahmed more than a decade ago in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case.

The petition has been filed by Pal's wife Puja, herself a two-time MLA, who has alleged that while he was out of jail, Ahmed had tried to intimidate witnesses in the murder case.
Raju Pal, who had made a sensational electoral debut from Allahabad (West) assembly segment by defeating Ahmed's brother Ashraf, was gunned down in broad daylight on January 25, 2005, barely three months after becoming an MLA.
A CBI inquiry was ordered into his murder by the Supreme Court last year on a petition filed by Puja, who was then the sitting BSP MLA from the seat earlier held by her husband.