Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's killing is perhaps Uttar Pradesh's most shocking incident in years given the clout he enjoyed, particularly in eastern Uttar Pradesh, even from prison. Ahmed had over 100 criminal cases registered against him, including murder and kidnapping. He was recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case. Ahmed was also a five-term MLA and a former Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha MP.
62-year-old Atiq Ahmed's first criminal case was 44 years ago, in 1979, when he was accused of murder. He rose to prominence in the 90s and early 2000s, when Uttar Pradesh experienced political instability and multiple rounds of President's rule.
Reports say Atiq became the boss of an extortion and land-grabbing syndicate in Prayagraj, then Allahabad, and in other parts of eastern UP.
This was also the time Atiq entered politics.
Winning from the Allahabad West Constituency in 1989 as an independent, and later winning the same seat from an SP and Apna Dla ticket, Atiq contested the 2004 Lok Sabha polls from the Phulpur seat, once Jawahar Lal Nehru's Lok Sabha seat, and won.
In 2005, Atiq was named as the main accused in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal, his political rival.
In 2006, he was accused of kidnapping Umesh Pal, the key witness in the Raju Pal murder case.
Two years later in 2008, Atiq surrendered before the UP police and was expelled by the Samajwadi Party.
Out on bail and not convicted in any case, Atiq contested both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and lost.
Atiq was arrested in an assault case in 2017 and was moved to the Sabarmati prison in Ahmedabad in 2019 on Supreme Court orders after being accused of orchestrating a kidnapping while in jail.
Atiq had 100 named FIRs against him and was facing 54 trials, where little progress was made as witnesses kept turning hostile, UP minister Rajeshwar Singh said. Ahmed's gang had 144 members as per the police gang chart, and 10 High Court judges had recused themselves from hearing his cases, he said, adding that Atiq had assets worth Rs 11,000 crore.
Atiq's rise in crime and politics in UP mirrored that of Mukhtar Ansari, another east UP politician and dreaded mafia don, who first won an MLA election on a BSP ticket in 1996 before switching parties for multiple MLA terms.
Ansari and his family have faced multiple criminal cases, and the police say property or land worth over Ra 200 crore was freed from the Mukhtar Ansari gang.
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