NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea by former MP and mafia Atiq Ahmad for protection, saying he is in custody and state machinery would take care of him.
Ahmad was suspected to be involved in a daylight shootout related to killing of advocate Umesh Pal, a witness in BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, on February 5 at Prayagraj.
On Monday, he was shifted to Prayagraj's Naini jail from Gujarat's Sabarmati for his appearance in a kidnapping case.
He filed a his writ petition alleging that he would be eliminated by the UP police.
Taking up his plea, a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi told Ahmads counsel to move the high court with proper application.
The counsel vehemently submitted that his clients safety is at stake and sought protection for his life while being in UP police custody.
State machinery will take care of you," the bench said.
In his writ petition, the gangster who reportedly faced over 100 criminal cases, contended that he was five-time consecutive time MLA and one time elected MP and should be protected as he might be "eliminated" in fake encounter by the police.
Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, along with several others were named as the accused in murder case of Raju Pal, then BSP MLA from Allahabad (West) constituency in 2005.
On February 25, one of the witnesses Umesh Pal was killed in Prayagraj in which wife of Ahmad, all four sons and brother have been roped in as accused as "mere suspicion", he claimed.
It was an application filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay that the top court had ordered shifting of Ahmad to Sabarmati jail in Gujarat from Uttar Pradesh in view of his reign of terror in the state despite being in jail.
