The media were strictly prohibited from entering the heavily guarded cemetery.
Prayagraj:
The last rites of Asad Ahmad, the son of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad, were performed at Kasari Masari Cemetery here on Saturday amid tight police security, with some distant relatives and authorized residents inside the cemetery . The funeral lasted an hour, according to the police.
“Asad Ahmad’s last rites are over, and it lasted an hour. Some distant relatives of Atiq and some people from the locality were authorized to go to the cemetery. It was necessary from a security perspective,” Prayagraj Police Co-Commissioner Akash Kulhari told PTI.
Earlier, Asad’s uncle Usman had reached the cemetery with his nephew’s body.
The media were strictly prohibited from entering the heavily guarded cemetery.
Atiq had asked a magistrate on Friday for permission to attend his son’s funeral. His lawyer Manish Khanna had told PTI that since Friday was a public holiday because of Ambedkar Jayanti, the request was forwarded to the remand judge.
However, the burial took place before Atiq’s claim could be brought before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court on Saturday.
Asad and his accomplice Ghulam, both wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, were shot dead in a gunfight with Uttar Pradesh police near Jhansi on Thursday.
Asad was the third of Atiq Ahmad’s five sons and had been missing since the Umesh Pal murder case.
Among Atiq’s other sons, eldest son Umar is incarcerated in Lucknow Prison, while second son Ali is incarcerated in Naini Central Prison in separate cases. The fourth son Ahjam and the youngest son Aban are housed in a juvenile home in Prayagraj. The remains of Atiq’s parents are also buried in the same cemetery (Kasari Masari), according to Janu Khan, who claimed to have dug Asad’s grave. Atiq is currently serving life in prison in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)