PRAYAGRAJ: Prayagraj police arrested Balli Pandit, sharp shooter of Atiq Ahmad, from Chakia area on late Wednesday night. A bag containing 10 bombs has been recovered. The police continued interrogating him till late night though no information has been revealed yet.
According to police sources, Balli Pandit, a resident of Neeva, Dhoomanganj, is a hardcore criminal. He is a history-sheeter of Dhoomanganj police station, against whom a total of 15 cases are registered. During his stay in Sabarmati jail, at the behest of Atiq, he kept committing crimes of land grab and extortion. After Umesh Pal murder case, his name came into limelight when his video with Shaista Parveen went viral.
On 19 February 2023, just five days before the murder, Shaista had reached Balli’s house to meet him. While leaving from there, everyone’s picture was captured in the CCTV camera. During this time, absconding shooter Sabir, carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh, was also seen along with Shaista. Following which, STF took Balli Pandit into custody and interrogated him for several days.
Sources say that Balli Pandit’s name came into limelight when he attacked former MLA Raju Pal in the year 2002. Although Raju Pal was not an MLA at that time. Balli’s father was Deputy SP in CBI who had a dispute with Raju Pal at a tea shop in Dhoomanganj itself. Balli’s father’s leg was burnt due to Raju’s blow falling on the silencer.
On getting information about this, he became angry and openly fired bullets at Raju Pal. He, along with his two associates, fired more than 40 rounds at Raju. After a few years, he once again attacked Raju Pal, in which he narrowly escaped. Later his house was burnt and Raju Pal was accused of this. Only after this, Atiq reached his house and helped him with money and included him in his gang.
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