On Thursday, April 13, Mahant Raju Das, who is the chief priest at the famous Hanumangarhi Temple in Ayodhya has announced a “cash reward” of Rs 51,000 for the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (STF), after the UP STF neutralised Asad Ahmed, the son of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed. It is notable that Asad Ahmed was one of the accused in the Umesh Pal murder case.
Apart from the cash reward, Mahant Raju Das also thanked UP CM Yogi Adityanath for the crackdown on the mafias. The Hanumangarhi Temple’s chief priest also appealed to the ‘mafias’ that till the time there is a BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and Yogi Adityanath is the CM, they should either shut their criminal activities or leave the state.
“As long as there is a BJP government and Baba (Yogi Adityanath) is the chief minister, you (mafias) should either leave the state or calm down,” Mahant Raju Das said.
Moreover, he also congratulated the UP Police STF and announced the cash reward for them. In addition to this, the Mahant also demanded that the remaining fugitives should also be ‘finished’ as in a state like Uttar Pradesh that is governed by the constitution and law, the morale of the culprits is so high that they carried out bomb attacks wherein police personnel and common people were killed. “It is for this reason, we would demand the administration and thank you to Yogi Ji,” Mahant Raju Das concluded.
It is notable that on April 13, 2023, Asad Ahmed, the third son of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed was gunned down by the UP Police STF in an encounter at Jhansi. Along with Asad, his associate Ghulam Muhammad, son of Maksudan, a gunman who assisted Asad in killing Umesh Pal and 2 other police personnel, was also killed.
The UPSTF team was led by Deputy SP Navendu and Deputy SP Vimal. The police had surrounded them and asked them to surrender. But they chose to fight instead. Both of them were taken to a hospital after the incident, where the doctors announced them brought dead. Foreign-made firearms were recovered on them. It has also been reported that Asad Ahmed was engaged to his cousin Mantasha, who is the daughter of Akhlaq Ahmed, who is the brother-in-law of Atiq Ahmed and also a co-accused in the Umesh Pal murder case.
