Samajwadi Party MLA Pooja Pal on Thursday lauded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for improving the law and order situation in the state, and thanked him for delivering justice to several women like her by bringing an end to criminals like Atiq Ahmed.
Pal made the remarks while speaking at the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Her husband Raju Pal, who was a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA, was shot dead in January 2005, days after the couple got married. Pal had defeated Atiq's brother Ashraf Ahmed in a byelection to the Allahabad West Assembly constituency in 2004.
Raju had lost the Allahabad West Assembly constituency in the 2002 UP elections, but defeated Ashraf in the by-poll after the seat was vacated. The police believe Raju was murdered in a political rivalry.
"Everyone knows who murdered my husband... I want to thank the Chief Minister for bringing me justice and hearing me when nobody else did. The CM gave justice to many other women like me in Prayagraj by bringing in policies like zero tolerance that led to the killing of criminals like Atiq Ahmed," she said.
"Today, the entire state looks at the CM with trust... 'Mere pati ke hatyare Atiq Ahmed ko Mukhya Mantri ne mitti mein milaane ka kaam kiya'... I raised my voice when I saw that no one wanted to fight against criminals like Atiq Ahmed... When I started getting exhausted with this fight, CM Yogi Adityanath gave me justice," she added.
Atiq and his brother Ashraf were killed in April 2023 while they were in police custody. The two were brought to the Colvin Hospital in Prayagraj for a medical examination. While the two were speaking to the media, three unidentified attackers posing as journalists shot them dead.
Atiq was shot in the head, and the attackers had fired around 20 bullets, killing the two on the spot. Notably, the incident took place on the same day when Atiq's son Asad, an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, was shot dead by the police during an encounter in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi.
