LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh DGP announced a cash reward of Rs 2.5 lakh each on five suspects of Umesh Pal murder case on Sunday. The suspects have been identified as Atiq Ahmad’s son Asad Ahmad and four others, including Armaan, Ghulam, Guddu Muslim and Sabir.
Umesh Pal along with two of his police gunners was shot dead by these suspects near Sulemsarai under the limits of Dhoomanganj police station in the Prayagraj district on February 24.
Initially, Prayagraj police had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 on each of them. However, on Sunday, UP DGP DS Chauhan while reviewing the case, announced a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh each for any information leading to their arrest.
Additional DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar, said that all the suspects have a criminal history and teams of both the STF and the commissionerate police are working to arrest them.
“We are monitoring operations from the DGP headquarters, while the DGP is himself keeping a close watch of the developments. All the possible hideouts of suspects named in the attack on Umesh Pal are being raided and they will be arrested soon,” said Kumar.
Two senior officers of the STF are camping in Prayagraj to trace the killers, rummaging the associates of criminals and also interrogating earlier associates of Atiq who are now in jails.
Soon after the murder of Umesh Pal, one Arbaaz, a resident of Kaushambi, was killed in an encounter near Nehru park. He was allegedly involved in the Prayagraj shootout of February 24, in which Umesh Pal was killed.
Police also arrested one Sadakat Khan, a resident of Ghazipur, who was allegedly involved in hatching the conspiracy to kill Umesh Pal. The police and district administration teams also razed houses of three close associates of Atiq Ahmad in the city.
