Shaista Parveen, the wife of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed who was gunned down in Prayagraj last week, is now on the Uttar Pradesh police's most-wanted list.
The class 12 graduate was born into a policeman's family and led a simple life in the Prayagraj village of Damupur.
So, how did she end up on UP's most-wanted list with a bounty of Rs 50,000 on her head?
The short answer: she married Atiq in 1996, who by then had established himself as a gang lord in UP, as per a Times of India report.
Her entry into the criminal world
The couple were parents to five sons and initially, Shaista confined herself to household chores. A retired Prayagraj school teacher, in fact, described Shaista to TOI as polite and as someone who would regularly attend parent-teacher meetings.
Eventually, however, every time Atiq went to jail, it was Shaista who would handle her husband's affairs.
Before he died, Atiq faced over 100 cases, including those of extortion, kidnapping and murder, but his first conviction came last month in the murder of Umesh Pal, a witness in the murder of Raju Pal.
Their sons, too, followed in his footsteps. Their eldest son, Umar, is lodged in a Lucknow jail, while the second son, Ali, is lodged in Naini Central Jail in separate cases.
The third son, Asad, was shot dead in an encounter in Jhansi last week. The two youngest ones, Ahjam and Aban, are housed in a juvenile home in Prayagraj.
Her stint with politics
Since his stay in jail was getting longer, Atiq transferred his political aspirations onto his wife. In 2021, she joined Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. And in January this year, she switched over to the BSP. However, as luck would have it, earlier this year, she was named as an accused in the FIR filed by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal in his murder case.
Soon after, Shaista went incommunicado and her party distanced itself from the controversy. BSP chief Mayawati subsequently announced that Shaista would not get the ticket to contest the mayoral polls.
Her connection with the Umesh Pal case
The murder of lawyer Umesh Pal on February 24, 2023 threw the spotlight on Shaista.
Umesh Pal was a key witness in the 2005 MLA Raju Pal murder case, in which Ahmad was also an accused.
As per TOI citing police sources, Shaista had gone to meet her husband at Gujarat's Sabarmati jail where the two discussed killing Umesh Pal.
"For this, Atiq had asked her to send a phone and a SIM card to him inside jail. He had also told her the name of a cop who would deliver the phone to him in prison. Days later, the phone was sent and Atiq used it to speak to shooters and plot the crime," the sources said.
TOI also reported that a property dealer had alleged that Shaista had threatened him over the phone several times regarding extortion money Atiq wanted him to pay.
She has been absconding from the police since Umesh Pal's murder. She did not turn up for her husband's burial either.
Currently, the 52-year-old has four cases registered against her in Prayagraj since 2009.