Prayagraj: A heated discussion was on this week in the sprawling grounds of Allahabad University’s Holland Hall hostel. The topic: The killing of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj last week.
The two were shot dead, allegedly by three men posing as journalists, while in police custody.
A day before, one of Ahmed’s sons, Asad, and a suspected aide of his, Mohammad Ghulam, were killed in an alleged encounter by UP Police. All were suspects in the February murder of Umesh Pal, who was earlier a witness in the 2005 killing of MLA Raju Pal.
While the killers of the Ahmed brothers are believed to be criminals, Atiq Ahmed had, in the days before his death, expressed fears that he would be killed in an encounter. Four people accused in the Umesh Pal case have so far been killed in alleged police encounters.
Ahmed’s killing while in police custody as well as the alleged encounters have drawn sharp criticism from the Opposition for the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government, which has frequently made proclamations about its aggressive stance against crime.
The mood in the Holland Hall grounds was, however, jubilatory. It was summed up in a few words by 25-year-old Atyant Pratap Singh, a senior law student, who insisted the “end of mafia” should be glorified.
Singh’s assertion was received with hooting and cheers.
Originally from Sultanpur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the hotbed of mafia violence, Singh said he came to Prayagraj in 2017, the same year Adityanath first assumed the CM’s chair.
Over the years, Singh added, he had seen the birth of a “new Uttar Pradesh” on account of the Adityanath government’s “thok do (Hindi slang for killing someone)” policy.
This is a reference to an Adityanath interview from 2017, where he said, “Agar aap apradh karenge, toh thok diye jayenge (if you commit crime, you will be killed).”
According to police data, UP has seen 10,900 encounters since Adityanath assumed office. Of these, 183 ended in killings.
While questions have surrounded the circumstances of some of the encounters, Adityanath has credited his government with improving law and order in the state.
In the face of Opposition protests in the assembly in 2018, he said the encounters would continue. Around the same time, he said that those who believe in threatening people with guns, should be answered in the language of guns.
This approach has found many fans in Prayagraj, the turf of Atiq Ahmed. But not everyone is sold.
“This is the collapse of law and order and governance,” said Farman Naqvi, an advocate at the Allahabad High Court. “When the government assumes that it can execute a person and pass a final judgment without judiciary.”
Also Read: ‘Totally reduced to dust’: Atiq Ahmed on his life — from a dreaded gangster to MP, and then in jail
‘Yogi does everything right’
Pranjal Rai, 41, who spoke to ThePrint outside the district court, said “Yogi baba [CM Adityanath] does everything right”.
“When criminals go out of hand, they should better be killed,” he added.
Rohan Kumar, who was waiting for his lawyer outside the court, said the alleged mafia had made Uttar Pradesh a “diseased state”.
“Investors were not coming here because of the mafia and the hurdles they posed. For every new construction, the mafia were paid. How long can UP remain backward? We have to progress,” he said.
Singh, the Allahabad University student, said “we should support encounters”.
“For a state like Uttar Pradesh, this is the only way to wipe out the mafia. And hence, we should glorify it too,” claimed Singh.
For Singh, the matter is personal.
Talking about his childhood in Sultanpur, he spoke of growing up with stories of “dreaded gangsters who had the villagers so terrified that they would give away a part of their monthly earnings to them”.
His father, a businessman as well as the village head or pradhan, was also a victim of “mafia terror”, he added, saying he too was forced to give monthly payouts to members of the mafia.
Another student, Prashant Kumar, said relatives who worked as builders in Prayagraj “faced similar exploitation by members of Ahmed’s gang”.
They couldn’t buy land or complete construction without paying a 10 per cent commission to them, he added.
Kumar alleged that even those in the government would give patronage to criminals. “How do these criminals become elected leaders? Who helps them?” he asked.
While Atiq Ahmed faced dozens of criminal cases — the first dating back to a murder he allegedly committed at 17 in 1979 — his first conviction only came last month.
He was a former parliamentarian who had also won five terms to the Uttar Pradesh assembly. Known to be close to former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ahmed is said to have been among the factors that led to a rift between Mulayam and his son, former CM Akhilesh Yadav, amid the latter’s efforts to clean up the party.
According to a police officer, Ahmed’s imprisonment had done nothing to temper his arrogance.
“Whenever Atiq was produced in the court [in the Raju Pal case], he would look at police officers with anger in his eyes. On several occasions, he had given warnings to officers to ‘mend their ways’ or they will bear the consequences,” the officer claimed.
Singh said the “thok do policy” is now giving the mafia a taste of their own medicine.
He added: “This (encounter culture) is a message the government is trying to send. That if you don’t stop the crime, you will be killed like this.”
‘Slow wheels of the judiciary’
One reason why the Allahabad University students are cheering the alleged encounters is the “slow pace” of judicial proceedings in India.
In September 2021, around 4.5 crore cases were reported to be pending in courts across India.
Singh said the judicial process process needs to be expedited to ensure speedy justice. He is echoed by Alok Mishra, a 21-year-old postgraduate student, who asserted that until the justice system is overhauled, the government should continue with the “encounters”.
“Can you believe Atiq became a criminal 40 years ago? In these 40 years, he even became an MLA and MP. He had more than 130 cases against him but still, there was no justice,” said Mishra.
Advocate Naqvi acknowledged the slow movement of cases, but said encounter killings was not the answer. “Courts are slow, that’s right. But there are reasons behind this. Courts are overburdened,” he added.
“In many cases, the state takes time to produce the witness. But that doesn’t allow the government to take the law into its own hands.”
“The idea is to streamline the court system, or, maybe overhaul it,” Naqvi said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)