Today, Prayagrag Court sentenced life imprisonment to Atiq Ahmed and two others held guilty in 2006. Ahmad's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf and six others have been acquitted in the case. 

Special MP-MLA court judge Dinesh Chandra Shukla held Ahmad, Saulat Hanif, a lawyer, and Dinesh Pasi guilty in the case, government counsel Gulab Chandra Agrahari said. The three were pronounced guilty under Indian Penal Code section 364-A  Agrahari said.

The maximum sentence under the section is the death sentence.

Last month, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath charged the Samajwadi Party with garlanding mafias like Atiq Ahmed and said in the state assembly that "mafia ko mitti me mila denge" After the killing of 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 Ahmad, he was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 28, 2006.