After the killing of two alleged shooters, accused in the sensational daylight murder of an eye witness in the killing of a BSP MLA, in encounters with the police and amid hints that more encounters might take place in the days to come, a senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader on Tuesday said that the Uttar Pradesh police were ''under pressure'' and apprehended that one of the sons of mafia don turned politician Atiq Ahmed, also an accused in the witness' killing, could also be gunned down in an encounter.
Umesh Pal, a key witness in the murder of the then BSP MLA Raju Pal in 2005, was shot multiple times at Prayagraj town, a few days back allegedly by seven shooters.
''UP police are not able to catch the real killers.....they are under tremendous pressure to nab anyone and kill them in encounters,'' SP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters at his native village of Saifai in Etawah district.
''Mark my words.....one of the sons of Atiq may be killed in an encounter in the next few days,'' Yadav said.
The SP leader said that the Constitution of the country guaranteed the Right to Life to every one. ''You can not take away someone's life.....you have to follow the law...there can not be any other way,'' he added.
Yadav said that of the five sons of Atiq, two were already in jail and one had been absconding while two others, both minors, were in police custody though the latter had not revealed where they had been kept.
Atiq's wife had also alleged that the police had picked her two minor sons from her home a few days back and their whereabouts were not known.
Yadav's remarks came within days of the killing of Usman alias Vijay Chaudhary, who was allegedly one of the shooters, in an armed encounter in Prayagraj. Usman was allegedly the first one to open fire at Umesh Pal.
Usman's wife, however, claimed that her husband was 'innocent' and also that her family had no link with Atiq Ahmed, the alleged mastermind behind Umesh Pal's killing.
Usman was the second accused person to have been killed in an encounter. Earlier the police had shot dead Arbaz in an encounter at a Park in Prayagraj town a few days back. Arbaz was said to be driving the vehicle by which the assailants of Umaesh Pal had escaped.