Atiq Ahmed never retreated from a property he wanted — except once, when he was at the height of his power. “This is the first time in my life that I have stepped in somewhere and then backed off,” he told Vera Ghandhi, after returning the keys to her property, ‘Palace Talkies’, in the heart of the Sangam city in Uttar Pradesh. But that was in 2008. Today, the accused gangster-turned politician is in Sabarmati Jail watching Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seize his holdings and hand them back to citizens.
How the tables have turned.
In Prayagraj’s Lukerganj area, 76 flats built on a government property that Ahmed had illegally acquired more than a decade ago and which was freed in 2021, will be ready by the end of April under the PM Awas Yojana. If all goes as planned, the UP government will soon hand over the keys to poor families—a symbolic fresh start from the ‘reign of terror’.
The waning of the five-time MLA’s power coincides with the rise of Yogi Adityanath government in 2017. What followed was a crackdown on his holdings, and a wave of seizures and demolitions.
Legal and illegal benami property across the state valued at Rs 1,168 crore belonging to Ahmed and his associates have been seized and demolished so far, according to UP Police ADG (law and order) Prashant Kumar.
The one and only setback
Few had the means or power to cross Ahmed, especially when he was Samajwadi Party MP between 2004 and 2009. He has at least 130 cases against him — from kidnapping to murder to extortion. The bulky man with piercing eyes would send a chill down the spine of even jail officials. And his reputation was such that no jail wanted him.
In Sangam City, Atiq Ahmed had taken forceful possession of several properties of businesspersons, land owners, farmers and even the government, claims retired IPS officer and former inspector general of police Lalji Shukla who served in the city in the 1990s.
“He managed to get all the tenders in construction, building, electricity, Allahabad Development Authority, and Railways,” Shukla alleges.
The only time Ahmed backed down was in the case of Vera Ghandhi’s Palace Talkies. She still remembers the day he returned the keys to her 16 years ago. He arrived with eight henchmen armed with guns, said Ghandhi, who is in her 80s and lives at Prayagraj’s Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg.
“He told me if I had called him directly, he would still have handed over the keys to me. I asked why he threatened to take my space in the first place,” she recalled.
Ahmed was building a property over land he had allegedly forcefully acquired from a well-known business family in the Civil Lines area. Palace Talkies was just across the site, and Ahmed wanted to use it while overseeing the construction work, she said.
Ghandhi was recovering from a colostomy reversal surgery and was in the hospital when her manager called her up to inform that Ahmed was asking for the keys to their office.
“Atiq was saying he had to stand in the sun while overseeing the construction work and hence needed our space. When my manager refused, he started forcing him. One day, his men threatened him by saying if he didn’t give them the keys, he may never be able to reach home,” Ghandhi told ThePrint.
Terrified, the manager called her up after which she directed him to build a wall in the office and carve a small room for Ahmed.
“I thought it was better to give him a room. Otherwise, he would have occupied the entire property,” she said.
But getting the keys back was proving to be impossible. She recalled sending letters to then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then-UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sonia Gandhi, and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. It was a traumatic five months for her.
Ghandhi was luckier than others. Her late husband was a distant relative of Feroz Gandhi, the husband of former PM Indira Gandhi.
“It was very kind of Soniaji who took up this matter and asked Rita Bahuguna Joshi (BJP MP and ex-Congress leader) to intervene. Rita called up Atiq after which he returned the keys to us,” she said.
Also read: Atiq Ahmed was shipped out of UP. But this is how he ran his empire from Gujarat jail
Acquiring property was key
That was perhaps the only setback for Atiq during the peak of his career. According to Shukla, his house in Chakiya, which was demolished in 2020, had been built on Nagar Nigam land.
“He acquired several properties in areas like Kareli, Dhoomanganj, Shahganj, Kotwali, Pura Mufti, Khuldabad and Pipari,” alleged Shukla. Police officials and families that ThePrint spoke to describe a man who enjoyed political protection that cut across party lines.
“He would walk shoulder to shoulder with topmost politicians across parties,” said Shukla.
He rattles off a list of properties, which he claims Ahmed had forcefully taken possession of: A workshop at Johnson Ganj; a hotel belonging to the Sonkar family opposite Shahganj police station; a motor workshop in Civil Lines belonging to the Pahuja brothers. “He attempted to acquire the Royal hotel in Civil Lines but could not due to a court intervention.”
Sixty-five-year-old Surajkali blames Ahmed for the disappearance of her husband, Brijmohan. The case is still under trial.
“We had 12.5 bighas of land which they took possession of. Now, several houses have been built there. My husband was illiterate, we don’t know what he [Ahmed] did to him. We didn’t even find his body,” recounts Surjakali, who says she last saw her husband in Ahmed’s office in 1990.
“A society was formed by the name of Shivkoti Sahkari Samiti by people close to Atiq. My husband refused to put a thumb stamp on the papers. He was abducted and never returned,” she alleged.
Surajkali realised what had happened when Ahmed’s henchmen came for land marking. “They were taking control of our land after forging a fake deed with my husband’s signature on it. Subsequently, I lodged an FIR,” she told ThePrint.
In 2008, the year Ahmed made a play for Ghandhi’s property, Surajkali was kidnapped by his men who allegedly told her “she will be chopped into pieces like a chicken.”
“They pressured me to give Ahmed the power of attorney. They thrashed me and said I would meet the same fate as my husband if I didn’t vacate the land.” Surajkali agreed but once she was released from their captivity, she turned to the courts.
She has also survived at least three life-threatening attacks.
In 2016, a group of seven men pulled up outside her house in a car and four motorcycles and opened fire. Surajkali took two bullets, while her son Narendra was shot in the leg. In 2018, around 10-12 men in two cars opened fire on her house. The case is pending in a special MP/MLA court. Then in 2020, bombs were hurled at her family.
“FIRs were lodged every time. The family is fighting a total of five cases against the gang,” Surajkali’s lawyer KK Mishra told ThePrint.
Surajkali lives in a house constructed on a small portion of her husband’s land in Prayagraj’s Jhalwa area with her three sons and their wives and families, but under constant fear. A small colony has come up on a major portion of the land.
Ahmed is an ever-present threat in their lives. The irony is that her children started calling him mamu or uncle.
Lawyer Dayashankar Mishra, who is representing Atiq in several cases against him, told ThePrint that in most cases, Atiq Ahmed and his brother were booked for conspiracy. “Their names would be inserted in the FIRs later,” he claimed, and listed the Kachehri lawyer murder case and Chakiya murder case.
The empire demolished
Ever since the Yogi government has come to power, though, Ahmed’s fortunes have turned. And the murder of Umesh Pal on 24 February—a lawyer witness who turned hostile in the 2005 killing of BSP MLA Raju Pal—has given the authorities a fresh impetus to act against Ahmed and his associates. The politician-gangster was an accused in the Raju Pal case as well.
In March, the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) officials demolished at least five houses in Chakia and Dhoomanganj that they identified as belonging to “Atiq’s associates”. More demolitions are expected.
The UP government’s crackdown on benami properties of the mafioso have started showing some visible results on ground, at least in Lukerganj. And people are clamouring for a flat.
“A hundred people have applied for a single house. It was government land which had a house of 17m X 21m built over it and allocated to a government official. However, over a decade back, Ahmed took possession of the land,” said Govind Mishra, the contractor of the Lukerganj project.
Sonika Pandey, a neighbour who lives opposite the property, recalled when Ahmed would run an office from the house, but for the most part it was empty. A board of the Samajwadi Party used to hang outside, she said.
“The house was desolate and abandoned, and hardly anyone visited it,” she said.
Today, Atiq Ahmed will be produced before a special MP/MLA court in Pragyaraj for the verdict on his role in a kidnapping case, incidentally lodged by Umesh Pal. If he is found guilty, it will be his first conviction.
But for families like Surajkali, the fear persists as they demand protection from the government.
“So many have died. Raju Pal, Umesh too…I fear for my life, my children. They may get me killed too,” she says, showing a 10-cm mark at the back of her neck she carries ever since she suffered gunshots in 2016.
For the likes of Surajkali, a conviction for Atiq Ahmed is only a momentary relief.
(Edited by Prashant)