Former Samajwadi Party MP and five-time MLA, Atiq Ahmed, along with two others, was convicted by a court in Prayagraj for the 2006 kidnapping of Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case. The MP-MLA court sentenced Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi, and Khan Saulat Hanif to life imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh. This is the first conviction for the jailed don who has over 100 criminal cases against him. Seven others, including Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, were acquitted in the case. In a related matter, the Supreme Court dismissed Ahmed's plea seeking protection during his custody with Uttar Pradesh police in the Umesh Pal murder case, stating that there is no "substantial" evidence to support his claim of being under threat.