Former MLA and younger brother of former MP Atiq Ahmad, Khalid Azeem aka Ashraf, was arrested by the police in Uttar Pradesh in Prayagraj on Friday. Ashraf had been on the run for the past two-and-a-half years.
Carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, Ashraf has around 30 cases of heinous crimes including extortion, land grabbing, threatening witnesses and possessing illegal arms registered against him in various police stations.
He was wanted in around nine different cases lodged against him, including double murder in Mariadih village of Prayagraj a few years back.
Though the district police are yet to formally confirm his arrest, two police officials requesting anonymity confirmed that he had been nabbed.
“He has been arrested by the crime branch team from near Kaushambi border. He has been brought to Cantonment police station of Prayagraj this morning where he is being questioned,” said a police official.
Police had attached property of Ashraf five times in the past and carried out multiple raids over the years but had failed to arrest him.
Even the Special Task Force (STF) of UP Police was on a lookout for him.
A raid was carried out on June 8 at Shivala market in Kaushambi after a tip-off that Ashraf is present in the area. Ashraf was not found but his four brother-in-laws – Abdul Rehman, Abdul Wahid, Abdul Wasit, Abdul Samad aka Saddam – and four aides Mohd Saquib, Noor Mohammad, Mohd Rizwan and Mohammad Imran were arrested. They were charged with sheltering Ashraf and helping him escape.
It is worth mentioning that Ashraf’s brother former MP Atiq Ahmad is lodged at Ahmedabad Jail on the instructions of Supreme Court while Atiq’s son Umar is also on the run in connection with the abduction and assault on a Lucknow-based realtor which is being investigated by CBI.
