Umesh Pal murder case: A 50-day chase that ended in Atiq Ahmad's son Asad's encounter

LUCKNOW: It took 50 days of meticulous planning, random verification of over 10,000 phone calls, thousands of kilometres of travel across four states to conduct innumerable searches before Atiq's son Asad and his aide Ghulam Mohammed came face to face with the STF sleuths in Jhansi on Thursday afternoon. The exchange of fire that followed ended in Asad and Ghulam Mohammed being killed.

At least six teams of the UP special task force (STF) went to four states and visited Nepal in the search of Asad before they managed to locate them near Jhansi on Thursday. The two have been on the run since the broad day-light murder of lawyer Umesh Pal and his two police gunners on February 24 in Prayagraj.

Additional DG, STF, Amitabh Yash, said that a footage of the crime was recovered from the spot, in which Asad and Ghulam were spotted opening fire at Umesh Pal.


"We were personally coordinating with the field officers giving them directions," said Yash. "We had tracked them to Jhansi and had missed them in the past but this time we got them. They were using secure means of information," Yash said.

Field officers who had served in Prayagraj and had worked upon gangs of Atiq were roped in. All possible areas of Atiq's hideouts, including Sulemsarai, were raided.

An officer said CCTV footage recovered from house of Dr Akhlaq, Atiq's brother-in-law, in Meerut helped them in the case. "He transferred Rs 50,000 into accounts of the accused and we tracked Guddu Muslim who fled barely five minutes before the arrival of STF team." Then a probe led the STF to Sangam Vihar in Delhi but Asad and Ghulam had fled by then.



Reports were received of the two fleeing to Ajmer, Nashik, Mumbai and places in MP, but the two were not provided shelter there. The STF claimed that the accused wanted to ambush the cavalcade carrying Atiq Ahmed and started recce near Jhansi.

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