New Delhi: “I am totally reduced to dust, but please don’t trouble the women and children of my family now,” Uttar Pradesh’s gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed told reporters from inside a police van Wednesday.
His words weren’t quite off the mark as late Saturday, the 62-year-old and his brother Ashraf were gunned down by three armed men while they were being taken for a medical checkup in UP’s Prayagraj. The incident occurred just when the brothers were giving a statement to the media.
Atiq, a former legislator, was married to Shaista Praveen, also his co-accused in Umesh Pal murder case this year. They had five sons — one of whom, Asad, was killed in an ‘encounter’ along with an aide, Ghulam, last Thursday.
Political life
Atiq shot into political limelight in 1989 when he first became an MLA from the erstwhile Allahabad (W) in Uttar Pradesh. He went on to win the seat for five consecutive terms and moving on to the 14th Lok Sabha as a Samajwadi Party candidate in 2004. It was the same year that Raju Pal won the state assembly bypoll from Allahabad (W), the seat vacated by Atiq from where the latter fielded his brother Asad. However, Pal won the election.
Pal was shot dead in early 2005, and the seat fell vacant again. This time, Ashraf won the election against Pal’s wife Puja. While Ashraf was the prime accused in the murder, Atiq was a co-accused.
Once his LS term ended, Atiq tried to contest UP assembly elections in 2009 which he was allowed to contest as he hadn’t yet been convicted in any case. However, he had already been expelled by the SP, and with the BSP refusing him a ticket, Atiq contested on an Apna Dal ticket from Pratapgarh, only to lose.
He tried his luck again in 2012 on an Apna Dal ticket, this time from his bastion of Allahabad (W). While he filed his nomination from jail, and appealed for bail, judge after judge refused to hear his case. Finally, when he did get out on bail for the elections, he lost to Raju Pal’s wife, Puja.
The SP took him back in the fold in 2014 and Atiq fought the Lok Sabha election from Shrawasti. But lost again to the BJP candidate.
While Atiq was an accused in Pal’s murder, it was the subsequent killing of a prime witness — who later turned hostile, allegedly because Atiq pressured him — Umesh Pal early this year that the state government turned its lens on Atiq all over again.
Criminal cases
Atiq was first accused of murder in 1979, when he was just 17. After years of active politics, Atiq’s political graph took a steady decline and by 2014, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav had also begun distancing himself from the man because of his criminal record.
In 2016, Atiq and his aides allegedly assaulted the staff of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, purported videos of which went viral back then. Reports say the assault took place after two students were debarred from taking exams on being caught cheating.
The next year, the Allahabad High Court directed the police to arrest all the accused, which included Atiq. But he got a 14-day remand. Some reports say Atiq also contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but secured only a handful of votes.
In 2018, businessman Mohit Jaiswal accused Atiq of assaulting him in Deoria jail. Jaiswal alleged that Atiq’s gang was trying to extort money from him. He alleged that he was taken to the jail when he did not relent, and beaten up. As the news spread, the state government shifted Atiq to Bareilly jail. He was later shifted to the Naini jail in Prayagraj.
The next year, the Supreme Court directed the UP government to transfer Atiq to Gujarat from Naini jail.
On 24 February this year, Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the Raju Pal murder, was attacked and killed along with his police guard who were shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. The police registered an FIR against Atiq Ahmed, his wife Sahista Parveen, their two sons, his younger brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, and others on February 25.
He was finally convicted in the 2006 Umesh Pal abduction case late last month and sentenced to life imprisonment. That was his first conviction in over 130 cases against him.
Last Tuesday, he was transferred from the Sabarmati jail to appear before the court in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. This, after the Supreme Court turned down his request to issue some directions for his protection as there was threat to his ife. The court said the state machinerty would take care of the issue.
While securing his remand, the UP STF submitted in its chargesheet that Atiq confessed to having hatched the Umesh Pal murder conspiracy and had links with the ISI, but the gangster denied all of it in court, said his lawyers.
(With PTI inputs)
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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