The Allahabad High Court has accepted the criminal appeal against the life sentence of Israr Ahmed, who is accused in the murder of MLA Raju Pal. The court has requested a reply from the CBI within four weeks.
The appeal demands the suspension of the life sentence given by the CBI Special Court in Lucknow on April 4, 2024, and requests that Ahmed be released on bail.
The appeal was heard by a division bench comprising Justice Rajiv Gupta and Justice Mohammad Azhar Hussain Idrisi. Advocate Saurabh Chaturvedi, along with senior CBI advocates Gyan Prakash and Sanjay Yadav, represented the appellant.
MLA Raju Pal was shot dead in broad daylight in the Dhoomanganj police station area of Prayagraj in 2005. Among the accused were former MP Atiq Ahmed and former MLA Mohammad Ashraf alias Khalid Azim.
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After the initial police charge sheet, the case was transferred to the CBI, which filed an FIR in Lucknow and conducted an investigation. The special CBI court ultimately sentenced seven accused. Both Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf have since died. The appellant argues that the evidence and witness statements are inconsistent and that he has been framed based on dubious evidence. He maintains his innocence, asserting he was neither involved in the incident nor connected to the main accused. The appeal contends that the Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge CBI convicted him based on questionable evidence without concrete proof, and thus, the sentence should be overturned.
