'UP Police have done wrong, Usman was Vijay', claims wife

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), March 9 (IANS) The controversy over the alleged encounter of Usman, an accused in the Umesh Pal murder, is getting murkier with every passing day.

Usman's wife Suhani claims that husband's name was Vijay Chaudhary and not Usman.

"The entire village knows him as Vijay and no one ever knew that he was Usman. We came to know about this after he was killed. He was here in the house on the night of March 5 and left home at 7 a.m. on March 6. The police claim he was shot dead in the early hours of March 6," she told reporters.

She further said, "My husband was at home on February 24 on the day when Umesh Pal was killed. On February 27, he went to Satna in connection with the case lodged against his elder brother Rajesh and returned home on March 2. I came to know about his death in a police encounter when officials called me for investigation."

Suhani claimed that her husband worked as a driver and she had no information about his connection with Atiq Ahmad.

She alleged that the police took away her husband and father-in-law in the morning and confiscated their mobile phones.

Accusing the police of misusing the law, Suhani said, "The police have done wrong. The law is not made to kill someone. The law is made to protect."

She said that the police killed her husband because they could not track the culprits and conveniently gave him a Muslim name to give credence to their 'story'.

"We are not Muslims. Look at our house - it has pictures of all Hindu deities and we celebrate all Hindu festivals. Everyone in this village knows that we are Hindus," she stated.

Police officials said Vijay Chaudhary alias 'Usman' had many cases lodged against him at Kaundhiyara and Kydganj police stations for vehicle theft and other offences. His brother Rajesh was also a notorious criminal and currently lodged in the Satna Jail, they said.

This comes nearly a fortnight after another accused in the case, Arbaz, who allegedly drove the vehicle used by Umesh Pal's killers, was killed in an alleged encounter in Prayagraj on February 27.

The same day, police also arrested Sadaqat Khan, 27, a resident of Ghazipur, for his alleged involvement in the case.

In her police complaint, Umesh Pal's wife Jaya had named gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, as the main accused in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case who is currently lodged in a Gujarat jail, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam and nine others in the murder of her husband.