Prayagraj/Lucknow: Did Guddu Muslim stab his aka (boss) in the back? Speculation is rife in Uttar Pradesh Police circles as they try to hunt down the ‘bomb specialist’, mentioned by Ashraf Ahmed moments before he and his brother, gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, were gunned down in Prayagraj on 15 April.
The Special Task Force (STF) has launched a manhunt for Guddu, one of the accused in the Umesh Pal murder case and believed to have been a close aide of Atiq. His history with former bosses has led to questions about his loyalties, and Ashraf’s last words have only fuelled the murmurs.
Seconds before he and his brother were shot dead outside Colvin Hospital in Prayagraj, where police had taken them for a medical examination, Ashraf was answering questions from mediapersons when he mentioned Guddu. “Main baat ye hai ki Guddu Muslim…. (the main thing is that Guddu Muslim…)” he had said.
“Guddu Muslim is known to have backstabbed people in the past,” Prayagraj superintendent of Police (City) Deepak Bhuker told ThePrint without divulging further details.
However, when asked about the speculation that he may have leaked information about Atiq and Ashraf, retired IPS officer and former UP inspector general of police Rajesh Pandey said, “Guddu Muslim does not have the wherewithal to leak information about Atiq and backstab him.”
When asked about the likely action against Guddu, a lawyer privy to the case, who refused to be named, told ThePrint, “He was the closest aide of Atiq-Ashraf. When he is questioned, he will give many details about Atiq’s properties, shell companies and investments. He is next on the police’s hitlist.”
Meanwhile, in the backdrop of news reports suggesting that the UP Police may have traced Guddu to Nashik, an undated and unsigned letter from “Guddu Muslim” was reportedly pasted on the windshield of the car of Devendra Tiwari, a farmers’ leader in Lucknow. The letter reportedly read: “bring Rs 20 lakh to Allahabad or face death”. Tiwari has written to the Lucknow police commissioner about this letter, he confirmed to ThePrint.
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‘Bomb specialist’ and his several bosses
Born in the Shivkuti area of Allahabad (now Prayagraj), Guddu’s alleged association with crime goes back to his school days. Unhappy with his behaviour, his parents sent him to Lucknow to pursue further studies, Prayagraj police sources said.
But in Lucknow, the sources added, Guddu became associated with Dhananjay Singh (later a Bahujan Samaj Party MP) and Abhay Singh (now Samajwadi Party MLA from Gosainganj), who have been accused in a number of criminal cases.
However, when asked about his alleged association with Dhananjay and Guddu, Abhay Singh told ThePrint, “Guddu was never involved in student politics nor did he stay in the hostel.” Dhananjay, meanwhile, claimed that Guddu had actually been an aide of Abhay.
Guddu allegedly committed his first murder in March 1997. The victim was Fredrick J. Gomes, an assistant warden and physical education instructor at the city’s famous La Martiniere School. Guddu was arrested in the case but was later acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Recounting his earlier days, Pandey told ThePrint that student leaders at Lucknow University would make use of Guddu for bomb attacks — something that occurred several times in that era.
A ‘bomb specialist’ — nicknamed bambaaz — Guddu could reputedly make a bomb in just five minutes if he had all the material, Pandey said.
While Guddu allegedly started working with Dhananjay Singh and Abhay Singh in the 1990s, he was also linked to the Mukhtar Ansari gang, police sources said.
“He also worked with gangster Satyendra Singh Langadh of Ambedkar Nagar and became close to him. The Ambedkar Nagar and Faizabad (now-Ayodhya) areas witnessed a tussle among gangs over irrigation and PWD contracts. Guddu Muslim was used in the gang wars against gangster Ajeet Singh over government contracts,” a senior police officer on condition of anonymity told ThePrint.
According to reports, when Langadh was killed by eastern UP don Shri Prakash Shukla in the 1990s, his Gypsy was being followed by another vehicle that Guddu was driving. As Shukla sprayed bullets on Satyendra Singh, Guddu, who was driving at a distance of 100 metres, managed to escape into Ayodhya’s Sarairasi village.
Guddu the ‘backstabber’
In 1998, Guddu is believed to have been hobnobbing with now-slain contractor Santosh Singh of Ayodhya. It was the latter’s death that allegedly earned Guddu the “dhokebaaz” (backstabber) tag.
Gosainganj MLA Abhay Singh’s aide Randhir Singh Lalla told news channel Aaj Tak in an interview Thursday that the former’s long-time friend Dhananjay Singh and Guddu had plotted the murder of Santosh Singh and killed him by poisoning in 1998. Lalla in the same interview added that it was this “backstabbing” by Guddu that turned Abhay and Dhananjay into lifelong foes.
“He befriended Santosh Singh and arranged a meeting with Dhananjay and Abhay. When Abhay got to know that Santosh was from Rajepur, a village adjoining Ayodhya, he warned Guddu not to kill Santosh. But when Abhay was in jail, Guddu and Dhananjay backstabbed Santosh and killed him by spiking his cold drink with poison. Guddu had misled Santosh into coming to Lucknow,” he told Aaj Tak.
Speaking to ThePrint, Lalla said he had only said what he had heard about the sequence of events that led to the death of Santosh Singh. “I was very young at that time, and while I didn’t see it with my eyes, I was told that Santosh went with these people and never returned,” he said.
Speaking to ThePrint, former MP Dhananjay Singh denied all allegations Lalla had levelled against him in the interview.
“He (Lalla) is a close aide of Abhay Singh. He (Abhay) is a rival of mine, so naturally, he (Lalla) will speak ill of me. Basically, Guddu Muslim was a close aide of Abhay Singh and if you remember, Abhay, Guddu and one more aide called Madan had been booked by Jaunpur police for looting a petrol pump in 1992. All three were in jail for some time, Abhay for a month while Guddu had been jailed for three-four months that time,” he said.
Dhananjay further said that his rivalry with Abhay had actually started over a Lucknow University Students’ Union in 1995 “when Arun Upadhayaya was to contest the election but Abhay suddenly expressed his desire to contest”.
Pandey, however, told ThePrint that Santosh was strangled by the duo, the body was dumped before a truck on Lucknow-Raebareli Road and the incident was presented as an accident. While allegations of murder had been levelled in Santosh’s case earlier, the incident continues to be treated as an accident.
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Shri Prakash Shukla case
After Satyendra Singh’s death, Guddu came into contact with Shri Prakash Shukla and assisted the don in many crimes, police said. However, Shukla’s death in a 1998 police encounter led to Guddu getting another boss.
According to reports, Shukla was the first ‘gangster’ of UP to have used an AK-47 rifle. The man had allegedly taken a supari for killing former chief minister Kalyan Singh. It was for his arrest that the UP Police constituted the STF for the first time.
In the Aaj Tak interview, Lalla alleged that it was Guddu who leaked information about Shukla to the STF and backstabbed his boss again. The police had struggled to get a picture of Shukla back then.
Retired IPS officer Pandey, who was part of the STF then, told ThePrint that they had indeed picked up Guddu for questioning about the Shukla’s strength, identity, firepower and movement. “Guddu was questioned at that time,” Pandey revealed.
However, after Shukla’s death in September 1998, Guddu allegedly started working for suspected ISI agent and Dawood Ibrahim aide Pervez Tanda, who he befriended during his time in Gorakhpur jail.
In 2000, the Gorakhpur police had arrested Guddu from outside the Beur jail in Bihar, and brought him to UP in connection with a case lodged under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. However, he spent only a few months in jail before being released on bail thanks to Atiq Ahmed, who had paid for his lawyers, Pandey told ThePrint.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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