Prayagraj: Notorious ganglord and former MP Atiq Ahmed could not hide his desperation and profound sense of betrayal by his one-time allies in the months leading up to his bloody death on 15 April. It seeped through even in his extortion threats and menacing hints about exacting revenge.
“Muslim sahab pure Allahabad me bahoto ne humse faida uthaaya, lekin sabse zyada tumhare ghar ne uthaya (Muslim Sahib, many people have taken advantage of me in Allahabad, but you have benefited the most),” starts one message that Atiq purportedly sent Mohammed Muslim, a builder and former associate, from an iPhone he had allegedly been using in Gujarat’s Sabarmati jail.
“Aaj… log humare khilaaf FIR likha rahe hai aur police ke shay me kaam kar rahe hai (Today… they are filing FIRs against me and trying to take cover under the police),” it continues, using an unprintable slur to refer to such people.
A subsequent message advises Muslim to “immediately return my money”.
“I’m not going to die anytime soon,” it says. “I’ll be back soon to settle scores.”
Police sources in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) have confirmed to ThePrint that these and other messages, screenshots of which are presently going viral, were indeed sent by Atiq to Muslim in January this year.
Shortly after these messages were sent, Atiq’s son Asad reportedly gave Muslim a call, recordings of which are also doing the rounds of social media. In one call, Asad purportedly accuses Muslim of “changing colours” and orders him to cough up money and hand it to Umar, another one of Atiq’s sons, in Lucknow.
The next month, on 24 February, Atiq’s adversary and one-time associate Umesh Pal was gunned down in broad daylight in an attack allegedly orchestrated by Atiq. Asad, who has since been killed in a police encounter, was one of the alleged shooters.
Police sources had told ThePrint that Atiq was enraged because he thought Pal had “backstabbed” him by filing FIRs against him despite gaining financially from him earlier.
Similarly, Atiq’s relationship had also changed with Mohammed Muslim, a history-sheeter himself.
“Mohammed Muslim, who was residing in Lucknow, had interests in Prayagraj and was very close to Atiq Ahmed. They worked together for almost 10 years but for the past four years, disputes between the two had increased,” said a Prayagraj police officer privy to the investigation.
Police sources as well as others who knew Atiq Ahmed told The Print that several of the gangster’s associates had become his adversaries over time, especially after he was sent to jail and was believed to have lost his iron grip on his empire.
While some members of Atiq’s inner circle have filed FIRs against him and his relatives, others are alleged to be running criminal rackets and seizing properties in his name but keeping the spoils for themselves.
Meanwhile, some alleged victims — including former associates of Atiq — are calling for increased security measures and are urging the government to take action against gang members who are still at large.
‘100 gang members are still active’
After the audio recordings of his conversation with Asad Ahmed emerged last week, the UP police’s special task force (STF) detained Mohammed Muslim for questioning.
A builder with several ongoing and upcoming construction projects in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Kanpur, and Bahraich districts, Muslim has a substantial criminal history.
According to police documents in possession with ThePrint, he has 16 cases lodged against him in Colonelganj, Dhoomanganj, Khuldabad, Kareli, and Wazirganj police stations of Prayagraj and Lucknow. These cases, filed between 2007 and 2022, are under numerous sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including attempt to murder and criminal intimidation, as well as under the Goonda Act.
Police sources claim he worked with Atiq Ahmed for many years, but at some point, Muslim tried to snap ties.
This Wednesday, days after he was questioned, Muslim filed a complaint with the police, and an FIR was lodged against Atiq’s sons Ali and Umar, as well as alleged gang members Asaad Kalia, Ehtesham Kareem, Ajay, and Mohammed Nasrat under IPC sections 386 (extortion), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting), 364 (kidnapping), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
In the FIR, which ThePrint has seen, Muslim has alleged that ever since he started working as a builder in Prayagraj in 2006, Atiq and his brother Ashraf would regularly threaten and try to extort him. The complaint says the brothers also attempted to forcefully take possession of Muslim’s land — a modus operandi that Atiq is known for.
“Since 2021, Atiq’s henchman Asaad Kalia has been pressuring me to hand over my property worth Rs 15 crore to Atiq’s son Umar… Ali and Asaad (Kalia) would make threat calls to me forcing me to transfer my property in their name,” he alleged in the FIR.
On 19 April, Kalia, who had a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head, was arrested by Prayagraj police in connection with another case.
Prayagraj Superintendent of Police (City) Deepak Bhuker confirmed this development and said Kalia had been working for Atiq and managing his business.
However, sources in the special task force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police said that more than 100 members of Atiq’s gang are “currently active” in Prayagraj and nearby areas and that a comprehensive list is being prepared by the district police.
“Several of his men are on our radar,” Bhuker told ThePrint.
‘Atiq’s men have become too powerful’
Atiq Ahmed’s henchmen abandoned him when they saw him weakening, but used his name to run their own extortion rackets and make money, claims Pooja Pal, the Samajwadi Party MLA from Chail constituency in Kaushambi, formerly a part of Allahabad district.
In January 2005, Pooja’s husband, MLA Raju Pal, was allegedly brutally murdered by Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, allegedly due to political rivalry, and she has tracked the syndicate closely ever since.
“The wheel turned for Atiq. When Atiq’s downfall began and he was imprisoned (in 2008 in connection with Raju Pal murder), his gang members started taking control of his land. Those who used to collect money on his behalf began extorting in his name but kept the money for themselves,” she told ThePrint. “These men have now become too powerful.”
Pooja has compiled a list of 56 individuals who are allegedly part of Atiq’s gang, including Abid Pradhan, Farhaan, Javed, Zaid, and Guddu Muslim.
The latter’s name, notably, was among the last few words uttered by Atiq’s brother Ashraf before the two siblings were shot dead by three persons while in police custody earlier this month.
According to Pooja, the gang’s extortion activities have now expanded beyond Prayagraj to other areas such as Lucknow and Bahraich.
“Even while in jail, it was difficult for Atiq to change his style… his threats in a scary tone have been recorded. The people whom he nurtured started to lodge FIRs against him,” she added.
New kingpins?
Atiq Ahmed’s death hasn’t necessarily ended the crime spree of land grabs, murder, and extortion that he started decades ago, according to some Prayagraj residents who have been in the crosshairs of the gang.
“Atiq and Ashraf are gone, but most of their men are roaming freely. Who knows what will happen when the media frenzy subsides? His sons are in jail but many of the gang members are absconding,” said Narendra Kushwaha, whose family has had a long and tortuous history with Atiq’s gang.
In 1990, Narendra’s father Brijmohan Kushwaha went missing. The last time that his wife Surajkali Kushwaha, now 65, saw him was in Atiq Ahmed’s office, she told ThePrint. She claims he was forced to put his thumbprint on a benama (property paper), handing over 12.5 bighas of land that he owned.
Brijmohan was never seen again and the property that Atiq’s men took possession of has never been returned.
More than three decades on, she continues to fight in court. She claims there have been three near-fatal attacks on her and one on her son Narendra, allegedly by Atiq’s men.
Then there is the case of Shweta Sharma, who lives in the Kareli area of Prayagraj.
In an FIR lodged this March, she detailed how Atiq’s associates allegedly threatened her family and fraudulently grabbed property from them.
According to the FIR, which ThePrint has seen, two lawyers called Ranvijay Singh and Mohammed Asif ‘purchased’ property worth Rs 1.80 crore for just Rs 15 lakh from Shweta’s husband Mohnish Ansari, which he owned jointly with his uncle and aunt.
Sharma has alleged that the lawyers along with various named and unnamed “Atiq’s men” forced her husband Mohnish and his uncle to sign the property papers at gunpoint.
“After fraudulently registering the property in September 2022, they want to evict us from the property. All of them are men of Atiq Ahmed who aim to make us shelterless and are now threatening to evict us,” she alleged in the FIR.
Speaking to ThePrint, Shweta claimed that her FIR was lodged in the Kareli police station only in March after she approached the media that had gathered in the aftermath of the Umesh Pal murder case.
Asked about this, ACP (Kareli) Shwetabh Pandey said the investigation is in process.
“The property is disputed. The two lawyers are notorious. The incident is being probed,” he said.
Friends turned foes
Ironically, men who were once considered close to Atiq’s gang and were on the police radar, are now demanding protection from their former associates.
One of them is Sabir Hussain alias Sheru, a property dealer.
In December 2021, Sabir was one of the persons identified by the police as being one of Atiq’s men and issued a warning ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls to refrain from causing trouble.
“Till the time Atiq was alive, I was living under threat but now, I am much more scared,” said Sabir, whose family was allegedly forced to leave their house in the Chakiya area and relocate to a relative’s house.
The situation has its roots in the 2015 double murder of a woman called Alkama, the sister of a village chief, and her driver Surjeet.
The Prayagraj police had concluded in 2017 that Atiq’s men had killed the two in order to frame their rivals Kammu and Jabir.
Sabir is Kammu’s cousin, and claims he has been targeted by Atiq’s gang ever since he started pursuing this case.
In an FIR lodged this April, Sabir alleged that Atiq’s son Ali, Asaad Kalia, and various other accomplices threatened him at gunpoint.
“In April 2019, I was in our familial house in Chakiya where my mother stays, when Atiq’s second son Ali, Asaad Kalia, Shakeel, Shakir, Sabi Abbas, Faizan, Saif, Nami, Affan, Mehmood, Maud and Atiq’s cousin brother Aslam Mantri, who were all armed with rifles and pistols, arrived at my house and forced to me to come out,” the FIR says.
“When I came out, Ali and Asaad, took me at gunpoint and told me not to pursue cases against Atiq in case I wanted to live. They also demanded Rs 1 crore from me and upon my denial, they started firing on me but I somehow saved myself,” it adds.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sabir claimed that Kalia and Mantri visited him again in February this year. This time, he alleged, they demanded Rs 1 crore and asked him to accompany them to Sabarmati jail to meet Atiq.
Even one of Atiq’s relatives has spoken to the media about fearing for his life and has lodged an FIR.
Mohammed Zeeshan, son of Atiq’s brother-in-law, told reporters earlier this month that Ali and Kalia had pressurised him several times to either hand over Rs 5 crore or give up his property.
Notably, in December 2021, Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen had held a press conference alleging that Zeeshan and others were trying to usurp Atiq’s property taking advantage of her husband being lodged in jail. Zeeshan has denied this.
“I have been provided with a gunner but I need at least two more,” he told mediapersons. “You have seen what happened to Umesh despite him being provided with security.”
This report has been updated to reflect that Ashraf Ahmed, not Atiq, mentioned Guddu Muslim moments before being fatally shot.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
Also read: ‘Totally reduced to dust’: Atiq Ahmed on his life — from a dreaded gangster to MP, and then in jail