No lawyer willing to represent gangster, Atiq Ahmed's son gets state counsel
Ali Ahmad has been appointed a legal aid lawyer in the Gangsters Act case linked to the Umesh Pal murder after telling the court no private advocate would represent him. The move follows a court direction to the District Legal Services Authority and extends the legal aid process to other accused as well.
After no private lawyer came forward to represent him following the deaths of his father, Atiq Ahmed, and uncle, Ashraf, Atiq Ahmed’s son Ali Ahmad will now get a lawyer at government expense in a Gangsters Act case linked to the high-profile Umesh Pal murder case.
Ali had told the court that no advocate was willing to represent him after the deaths of his father and uncle. Following this, the court began the process of providing him legal aid.
Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead in 2023 while being taken for medical tests in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. The development came just hours after the last rites of Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad were performed at the Kasari Masari graveyard in Prayagraj.
During a video-conferencing hearing on September 15, statements of Ali Ahmad and the other accused in the case were recorded. The proceedings lasted for more than two hours, during which the accused requested the court to provide them with lawyers at government expense.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Anuradha Pundir subsequently wrote to the District Legal Services Authority, asking it to act on the accused’s request for legal aid.
Following the court’s directions, the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority appointed Legal Aid Chief Defence Counsel Vikas Gupta to represent Ali Ahmad in the case.
The process of providing legal aid to the co-accused in the same case has also been initiated for Mohammad Arshad Katra, Kaish Ahmad, Rakesh alias Nakesh, Sharuk alias Shahrukh, Sadakat Khan and Niyaz Ahmad.
This means that in the absence of a private lawyer, Ali will now be represented in court by an advocate appointed through the District Legal Services Authority at government expense. The appointment has been made as part of the legal process and does not mean that the court has held the allegations in the case to be either true or false.
Ali Ahmad, Atiq Ahmed’s second son, is currently lodged in jail. His elder brother Umar is also lodged in a separate jail in Uttar Pradesh.
Ali’s younger brother Asad, who was wanted by the police in the Umesh Pal murder case, was killed in a police encounter in 2023. His youngest brother Abaan was killed in a road accident last month.
Ali has recently been produced before courts in Prayagraj in connection with different cases. On September 21, he was produced before the Prayagraj district court in an extortion case, where his statement was recorded.