Atiq Ahmad, 60, and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj in April.
In a crackdown on associates of gangster Atiq Ahmed named in the sensational Umesh Pal murder case, the Prayagraj Development Authority on Wednesday demolished the house of a close aide of Ahmed.
According to the Hindu calendar, Dev Uthani Ekadashi is the day in the month of Kartik, the 11th lunar day (a period between new moon and full moon, also known as shukla paksha).
Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district early Tuesday with a complaint of abdominal pain.
The three assailants, who were arrested after shooting dead gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj, confessed to their crime on Sunday, adding that they did it to 'become popular'.
Authorities on Thursday bulldozed the house of an aide of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed here amid heavy police presence, the second such action in two days.
The DGP clarified that the UP Police has however, not arrested any person from Odisha.
A police cavalcade carrying gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed left for the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat on Tuesday evening, hours after he was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in a 2006 kidnapping case by a court in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, a senior official said.
Addressing an election meeting on what once was the home turf of slain gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday appeared to invoke nature as a great leveller -- a force that delivers justice.
He said the Uttar Pradesh police in all likelihood will seek his transit remand and also police remand to take him from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj and he "genuinely apprehends that he may be eliminated during this transit period".
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said there are courts to ensure that criminals get the harshest punishment but 'playing with law and order only gives birth to anarchy'.
Temperatures remained above 45 degrees Celsius in large parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh, affecting daily life as many chose to remain indoors in the afternoon.
'The Opposition will continue to be attacked through misuse of agencies, civil society will be force-marched towards extinction and India's plummeting on global indices will continue.' 'Minorities and especially Muslims will continue to have open season declared on them. Institutions will continue their decline,' predicts Aakar Patel.
The EC said polling percentage in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in 40 years.
The police and administration officials were present in large numbers as the demolition progressed.
On March 28, the apex court had dismissed Ahmad's plea for protection and observed that the Uttar Pradesh state machinery would take care of his protection in case of a threat to his life.
Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad, who was shot dead along with his brother at point-blank range, had admitted during questioning by police that he had links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba, according to a first information report (FIR).
A police official said a large number of policemen be deployed during the last rites of Asad to avoid any untoward incident.
The incident took place at Majalgaon in the district on Tuesday following which many locals gathered around the banner. Authorities promptly took it down, the official said.
The plea sought the setting up of an independent expert committee to probe the killing of Atiq and Ashraf.
Former Central Bureau of Investigation joint director Amit Kumar, who is now posted as Chhattisgarh police ADG, led the probe into the coal scam that resulted in convictions in a number of cases.
If the Congress is contesting fewer seats than ever before, the BJP is set to contest its highest-ever number of Lok Sabha seats.
The authorities in Prayagraj have ordered the demolition of a private hospital where a dengue patient died after being transfused with what the family claimed was sweet lime juice and not blood platelets.
The AIMIM chief questioned whether the public will have any faith in the Constitution and law and order of the country after this incident.
Ahmad was elected to the assembly as an Independent in 1989, 1991, 1993 and on a Samajwadi Party ticket in 1996. He returned to the House in 2002 on an Apna Dal ticket. He was elected as an MP in 2004.
Ahmad and Ashraf alias Khalid Azim will be kept in judicial custody till April 26, said advocate Vikram Singh, the counsel for Umesh Pal's wife Jaya.
The searches were carried out on June 14-15 at 10 premises in Prayagraj, Lucknow and Delhi, the agency said in a statement.
Atiq Ahmed is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the recent Umesh Pal murder case
Satellite imagery showed a dense elongated band of fog stretching from Punjab to the northeast.
"A wise exercise of judicial authority, both on and off the Bench, is what sustains the credibility and legitimacy of the judiciary and the confidence which society has in its Judges," the CJI wrote.
Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad's son Asad, wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, was killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh police in Jhansi on Thursday, officials said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has decided to cut short his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Uttar Pradesh by skipping western part of the state and saving five days, a party leader said on Monday while citing board exams.
With the surge in tourist footfalls to Varanasi in 2022, it almost rivals the arrivals in Agra and puts it way ahead of Prayagraj and Ayodhya.
Members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the forensic team visited the area outside Colvin Hospital to understand the sequence of events leading to the killing of Ahmad and his brother on the night of April 15.
Heatwave conditions continued unabated as temperatures hovered in the range of 40 to 44 degrees Celsius over most parts of the country on Tuesday, April 18, with Hamirpur and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh sizzling at 44.2 degrees Celsius.
General secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Champat Rai on Monday announced that the idol of Lord Ram will be placed at its position at the 'garbh griha' of the temple on January 18 and Pran Pratishtha will take place at 12.20 pm on January 22.
Congress supporters celebrate the Supreme Court's interim order to stay Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case.
The bullet-riddled bodies of Ahmad and Ashraf were taken away from the spot as tension gripped the area after the sensational killing.
A women offers prayers to the Sun God on the occasion of the Chhath Puja in Bhubaneswar.
