Lucknow, Mar 8 (IANS): Mafia don-turned politician Atiq Ahmad will be brought to Prayagraj from the Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad next week, a senior police official said.

"Immediately after Holi, we will initiate paperwork and get necessary permission from court after which Atiq will be brought to Prayagraj for interrogation in the Umesh Pal murder case," he added.

Atiq has been identified as the master conspirator of the murder of Umesh Pal and two police guards.

"We will soon apply for a warrant B (production warrant) to the jail in Gujarat where Atiq is lodged. We are working on expediting the cases against him in the state," said the official.

Atiq was shifted to Sabarmati jail in June 2019. The Supreme Court had, on April 22, 2019, ordered to shift him to a high-security jail in Gujarat after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault on a real estate businessman, Mohit Jaiswal, from the Deoria jail.

On December 28, 2018, Jaiswal had filed an FIR stating that he was kidnapped from Lucknow and taken to a jail where he was assaulted by Atiq and his aides and forced to transfer his business to them.

The incident had taken place at Deoria jail in Uttar Pradesh.

Later, the case was handed over to CBI which had filed a chargesheet on December 31, 2020 in the case and indicted Atiq and his son Umar along with others.

Meanwhile the mystery over the two minor sons of Atiq has deepened after his wife Shaista Parveen filed an application at a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court saying her two minor sons, Ahzaan and Abaan, are missing.

She said the two boys went missing after the Uttar Pradesh Police picked them up in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case and they have not been seen since.

The police had stated that the two minor sons were in a juvenile shelter home but Shaista said that the sons were not in the shelter home.

CJM judge Dinesh Kumar Gautam asked the child protection officer in Prayagraj and the station-in-charge of the Dhoomanganj Police Station, Rajesh Kumar Maurya, to submit a report on the 'missing' boys.

The hearing for this report will be held on March 10.

Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, was shot by unidentified assailants outside his house in Prayagraj.

As many as 160 criminal cases have been lodged against Atiq Ahmad's family members, according to Uttar Pradesh Police.

Atiq has been named in 100 cases, while his brother Ashraf has 52 cases, wife Shaista Praveen has three, and sons Ali and Umar Ahmad have four and one cases, respectively, against them.

Ali is currently lodged in Naini Central Prison in Prayagraj, while Umar is in Lucknow jail. UP Police has announced a reward of Rs 2.5 lakhs for Atiq's son Asad in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case.

Atiq's minor sons, Ahzaan and Abaan, are in Class 12 and Class 9 respectively.