PRAYAGRAJ (PTI): An MP-MLA court here on Tuesday held gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, Dinesh Pasi and Khan Saulat Hanif guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case.

The Court sentenced Atiq to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000.

Special MP-MLA court judge Dinesh Chandr Shukla held Ahmed, Saulat Hanif, a lawyer, and Dinesh Pasi guilty in the case, government counsel Gulab Chandra Agrahari said. The court also ordered the convicts to pay Rs 1 lakh each as compensation to be given to Umesh Pal's family

Seven others including Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf have been acquitted in the case, he said.

After the killing of the then BSP MLA Raju Pal on January 25, 2005, Umesh Pal, then a zila panchayat member, had told police he was a witness to the murder.

Umesh Pal had alleged that when he refused to retract and buckle under pressure from Ahmed, he was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 28, 2006.

The FIR was registered on July 5, 2007, against Ahmed, his brother and others. The police had submitted a chargesheet in the matter against 11 people. One of them later died.

Ahmed and Ashraf are also accused of being involved in a conspiracy, while they were both in prison, to kill Umesh Pal. Umesh Pal was gunned down outside his Prayagraj residence on February 24.