Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed was brought to the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj on Monday. He will be produced in court for the verdict in the 2007 case of the kidnapping of Umesh Pal, a key witness of the 2005 Raju Pal murder. Ahmed is a prime accused in the Raju Pal murder case as well.
WHO IS ATIQ AHMED?
Atiq Ahmed is a gangster-turned-politician who was an Allahabad West MLA from 1989-2004. He also served as a Lok Sabha MP from the Phulpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh between 2004 and 2009.
Born on August 10, 1962, Atiq Ahmed is named in over 100 cases. His brother Ashraf has 52 cases, wife Shaista Praveen has three, and sons Ali and Umar Ahmad have four and one cases, respectively, against them.
Atiq Ahmed first won the Allahabad West seat as an independent candidate in the 1989 UP Assembly election. He went on to win the next two elections as well. He switched to the Samajwadi Party in 1993 and then moved to Apna Dal in 1999. He quit the Apna Dal in 2003 to go back to Samjwadi Party, where he remained till his arrest in 2018.
RAJU PAL'S MURDER
He contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and won the Phulpur seat. This meant that he had to vacate the Allahabad West assembly constituency. The seat, which was now left vacant, was contested by Atiq's brother Ashraf. Ashraf went up against Bahujan Samaj Party's Raju Pal. The seat was won by Pal in the byelection held in November 2004.
However, Pal was shot dead on January, 25, 2005, while going to a Republic Day event in his village, leaving the seat vacant again. Two of his aides, Devi Lal and Sandeep Yadav, were also shot dead. Later that year, Ashraf, aka Khalid Azeem, won the Allahabad West seat on an SP ticket against Pal's widow Pooja Pal, who fought from the BSP.
Pooja registered a complaint against the Ahmed brothers — Atiq and Ashraf — for the murder of Raju Pal and Atiq was finally arrested in 2008. However, he was released four years later in 2012. He again contested the 2014 ok Sabha elections on an SP ticket but lost to BJP's Keshav Prasad Maurya. With the loss and pressure mounting over Atiq Ahmed's criminal record, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav distanced himself from him. Ahmed was eventually ousted from SP in 2018.
WHY WAS ATIQ AHMED LODGED IN GUJARAT JAIL?
Atiq was arrested again in 2017, for allegedly beating up staffers of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in Prayagraj. He was lodged in He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Varanasi seat as an independent against PM Narendra Modi, but lost.
Atiq Ahmed was again placed under arrest in another case of extortion and assault in Deoria jail. He was allegedly threatening businessman Mohit Jaiswal and even assaulted him in the jail. Two other businessmen also brought in similar complaints. He was then moved to Bareilly jail. However, due to allegations of Atiq working with jail officers to run an extortion operation, he was shifted to Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat.
WHY WAS ATIQ AHMED SHIFTED TO PRAYAGRAJ JAIL?
Atiq Ahmed was moved to Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj on Monday as he is to be produced in a court in the 2007 kidnapping case of Umesh Pal. Umesh was a key accused in the Raju Pal murder case. Atiq is a prime accused in both Umesh and Raju's murders. Umesh Pal was shot dead on February 23 this year.
Atiq's brother is also lodged in a different barrack in the same jail. Both will be produced in court on Tuesday.
HOW WAS ATIQ BROUGHT TO PRAYAGRAJ?
Atiq was escorted to the high-security Prayagraj Jail by a team of 45 police personnel, which included an encounter specialist. The journey, which ended on Monday evening, took around 36 hours. The convoy travelled via Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh and Jhansi in UP.
During the transfer, the convoy made very few stops. One of them was when a van from the convoy hit a cow near Kharai checkpoint, in Shivpuri district. The cow was attempting to cross the road when the speeding vehicle crashed into the animal. The vehicle could have easily overturned as a result of the collision but the driver managed to keep the vehicle under his control and brought it to a stop.
The convoy mostly maintained a speed of over 100 kmph, slowing only on stretches of poor or narrow roads.