Prayagraj: Uttar Pradesh authorities on Wednesday demolished a two-storey house in Prayagraj where the wife of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad, Shaista Parveen, lived on rent, marking another twist in a sensational crime saga that has seen a daylight murder and a controversial encounter in the space of a week.
Five bulldozers hired by the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) drove into Prayagraj’s Chakia locality around 11am and started demolishing the house, which was owned by an individual named Zafar Ahmad Khan. The house, valued around ₹2.5 crore, was already vacant.
PDA vice-chairman Arvind Kumar Chauhan confirmed the demolition. “The house was illegally constructed in violation of set norms and is therefore being demolished. Notice was issued to the owner and all the requisite process was followed,” he said.
But a lawyer representing Zafar, Khan Saulat Hanif, said that the house was bought in 2021 legally..
“Right in front of the house, the house of the parents of Shaista Parveen is located. After the demolition of Atiq Ahmad’s house…Shaista took it on rent and started living there from 2021. Even an electricity connection was sanctioned in the name of Parveen here,” Hanif said in a video message.
Parveen — along with her husband and son — is named as an accused in the sensational murder of advocate Umesh Pal, who was gunned down outside his residence in Prayagraj last week. Two police bodyguards also died in the incident.
Umesh Pal was the prime witness in 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party lawmaker Raju Pal – a case in which Atiq Ahmad and his brother Khalid Azeem, alongside close aides, are the prime accused.
Three days after the daylight murder, police gunned down a 24-year-old man Mohammad Arbaaz in a controversial encounter in the city’s Nehru Park. Police say Arbaaz was responsible for allowing Umesh Pal’s assailants flee after the crime.
Parveen and her son are currently absconding, said police.
The day began with a team from PDA, backed by a heavy police force, arrived with five bulldozers and heavy equipment in Chakia and tore down the front boundary wall of the house. After this, workers started bringing out household items and furniture, officials said. The team found two airguns, a sword and some posters of a political party from the house, officials present on the scene said, requesting anonymity. Then, over the next six hours, the entire structure was brought down using bulldozers.
In the state assembly on Wednesday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath referred to the killing of Umesh Pal and said the leader of opposition’s pictures have gone viral on social media.
“There were two ways to deal with a problem — the first being to face the same while the other is to run away from it,” he said, indicating that the leader of opposition had preferred to stay away instead of facing the situation.
“Yesterday I saw that a picture of Prayagraj’s incident accused is going viral. People will say it is an era of social media but (in the picture) there is a logo of your (SP) party, you (Akhilesh) can be seen shaking hands but still, you are denying it,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
When asked for a comment, senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav said: “Law and order is completely demolished. They are unable to catch the culprits and only bulldozers are moving around. Innocents are being traumatised.”
On BJP’s charge that Atiq Ahmad was a product of Samajwadi Party, Yadav added, “I have information that he (Atiq) enjoyed the patronage of the ruling party leaders for the last one year.”
Administrative decisions to demolish properties belonging to people accused in high-profile cases has become a signature move of the state government but has drawn flak from opposition parties and the judiciary, which has stressed the importance of due process.
In January, Parveen had joined the BSP and announced that she was named as the party’s mayoral candidate from Prayagraj. But after Umesh Pal’s murder, party chief Mayawati said that she will expel Parveen from the party if she was found guilty.
After Umesh Pal’s murder, a first information report was registered against 17 people for the murder on a complaint by Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya. The police complaint names Atiq Ahmad, Parveen and their son, Atiq’s younger brother and ex-MLA Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf, among others. They were booked under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, police said.
Later in the day, police teams raided the house of Khalid Azeem’s in-laws but failed to find them at home, said people aware of developments.