Atiq Ahmed, convicted of kidnapping, was shot dead live on TV along with his brother, Ashraf, while being taken for a court-mandated medical examination, on Saturday night.
The gangster-turned-politician, who was under police escort, was speaking to mediapersons when a gun was pulled close to his head in Prayagraj, the erstwhile Allahabad, and shot him point blank. Atiq and his brother died on the spot.
The shooters— Lovlesh Tiwari, Sunny Singh and Arun Maurya — posing as journalists surrendered and were taken into custody.
This came only days after Ahmed’s son Asad was gunned down in a police encounter in Jhansi in UP. Asad was an accused in the murder of Umesh Pal, a lawyer who was shot dead in front of his Allahabad residence on February 24 in broad daylight.
Poverty stricken childhood
Born in 1962 in a poor family in Allahabad, Ahmed’s father drove a tonga (horse cart) in town for a living. After failing his high school examination, Ahmed’s life as a criminal began.
He started by stealing coal from trains and selling it to make money, and then began intimidating contractors to bag government tenders for railway scrap. He amassed enormous wealth after getting a contract to sell railway scrap.
Atiq Ahmed had a long stint both in politics and with the criminal world. A five-time legislator and a one-time parliamentarian, Ahmed was first accused in a murder case in 1979.
He had over 100 criminal cases, including those of murder, kidnapping, illegal mining, extortion, intimidation and fraud, lodged against him over four decades. But he had zero convictions till a Prayagraj court pronounced him guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case on March 28.
Politics and Crime
By late eighties, Ahmed became a household name and the western part of Allahabad became his bastion as he emerged as a person who had strong influence in that part of the city.
The death of his biggest rival and dreaded gangster, Shaukat Ilahi aka Chand Baba, in a police encounter in 1989, is seen as the beginning of Atiq Ahmed’s reign of terror and dominance in Prayagraj.
At the age of 27, he won his first election in 1989. Contesting as an Independent, he won the Allahabad West assembly seat. Atiq Ahmed was elected as an MLA from the Allahabad West constituency for a record five consecutive terms.
He went on to win the seat for two consecutive terms – 1991 and 1993- and his fourth win came as a lawmaker from the Samajwadi party in 1996. In 1999, he joined Apna Dal, founded by Sone Lal Patel, and won the Allahabad west seat in the 2002 assembly elections on the Apna Dal ticket.
In 2003, Atiq Ahmed returned to the SP fold, and in 2004, he won the Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency — the seat once held by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and veteran socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra.
Meanwhile, cases continued to be filed against Ahmed in Prayagraj and other parts of the state. Ahmed fought a few more elections in the next decade but lost all of them.
His first major setback was when Atiq Ahmed was named in the murder case of Raju Pal, who was shot dead in 2005.
After winning the LS polls, Atiq Ahmed had to vacate his Allahabad West assembly seat. In the bypoll that followed, Atiq Ahmed’s brother Ashraf lost to Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Raju Pal, and this was the first time that a family member of Atiq Ahmed had to face defeat.
A few months later Raju Pal was chased and fired upon by Atiq Ahmed’s henchmen, while going to his village on the occasion of Republic Day. Thereafter, Ashraf won the seat by defeating Pal’s wife Pooja Pal. Ashraf was the prime accused in the murder while Atiq Ahmed was charged with complicity.
In 2007 ,when BSP chief Mayawati returned to power in Uttar Pradesh, the police stepped up pressure on him and his brother, Ashraf. They eventually surrendered in 2008, but were released in 2013, a year after the SP came back to power.
Ahmed fought a few more elections in the next decade but lost all of them. He contested tthe Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from Shravasti as a SP candidate but lost.
Of the many charges against him, Atiq Ahmed was accused of shielding men allegedly involved in gang-raping some madrasa students in 2007. This triggered a massive protest by locals.
Another setback for Atiq Ahmed came in 2017 when Akhilesh Yadav took control of the Samajwadi Party. In February 2017, Ahmed was arrested by the police for allegedly attacking staff members of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in Prayagraj.
The police action came after the Allahabad High Court pulled up the UP Police for not arresting him.
Even in jail, Atiq Ahmed’s political ambitions were far from over. He filed nomination from the Varanasi constituency against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 and got 855 votes.
In 2018, Ahmed was accused of getting a Lucknow-based businessman kidnapped and taken to Deoria jail, where Atiq thrashed him for not paying extortion money.
In June 2019, Ahmed was moved to Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Umesh Pal murder case
The Umesh Pal murder case was the final nail in the coffin for Atiq Ahmed.
Umesh Pal was a key witness in the 2005 murder of Raju Pal in Prayagraj.
Azila panchayat member Umesh Pal then, told police that he was a witness to the murder.
On February 28, 2006 , Umesh Pal alleged that he was kidnapped at gunpoint when he refused to retract and buckle under pressure from Ahmed.
He was allegedly abducted in a Land Cruiser near Phansi Imli in the Dhumanganj police station area by Ahmed. He was beaten and electrocuted while he was kept in his Chakia office.
On March 1, 2006, Ahmed had forced Umesh Pal to give a written statement in his favor, that he was not present at the crime scene and did not want to testify.
After the BSP’s stunning victory in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Umesh Pal filed a case of kidnapping at the Dhumanganj police station on July 5 2007.
In a High Court application, Umesh Pal pleaded for an early settlement of the case . The Allahabad High Court ordered that the hearing of the case be completed by March 16, 2023, in two months.
Umesh Pal was murdered on February 24 after returning from defending this case.
Ahmed’s name along with the names of his sons and wife surfaced in the Umesh Pal murder case.
His murder led to a furore in the UP Assembly after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath accused the SP of promoting criminals during its rule. He warned, “Iss House mein keh raha hoon. Iss mafia ko mitti me mila denge.”
And that’s what happened.