"Hatya, hatya (murder, murder)," Atiq Ahmed told reporters outside the jail (File)
Soon after stepping out of the Sabarmati central jail here before being taken to Prayagraj by the Uttar Pradesh police, gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed on Sunday alleged that the police personnel want to kill him under the pretext of court appearance in his home state.
"Hatya, hatya (murder, murder)," Atiq Ahmed told reporters outside the jail.
When some reporters asked him while he was being taken to a police van if he feared for his life, the former Samajwadi Party MP said, "Mujhe inka programme maloom hai...Hatya karna chahte hain (I know their programme...They want to murder me)." He also said that his appearance in a Prayagraj court was a just pretext for the police to kill him.
"Court ke kandhe pe rakh ke maarna chahte hain (They want to kill me under the pretext of court appearance)," he said as he was taken towards the van.
A team of the UP police reached the Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad city in the morning and left the premises with Atiq Ahmed in a police van amid tight security around 6 pm after completing the necessary formalities.
The police convoy entered Rajasthan from Gujarat around 8.12 pm, an official said.
Atiq Ahmed will be produced before a court in Prayagraj city in Uttar Pradesh on March 28 when it is scheduled to pass an order in a kidnapping case in which he is an accused, officials said.
The Supreme Court had in April 2019 directed that the former MP from Phulpur in UP be shifted to a high-security jail in Gujarat after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of a real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in jail.
He has been lodged in the Sabarmati central jail since June 2019. He was shifted there from his home state as per the Supreme Court's order.
He is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the recent Umesh Pal murder case, police said.
Among the most sensational murders in which Atiq Ahmed is allegedly involved was that of Raju Pal, the MLA from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who was shot dead in 2005. Umesh Pal, a key witness in this murder case, was gunned down outside his residence in Prayagraj on February 24 this year.
Earlier this month, Atiq Ahmed moved the Supreme Court for protection, claiming that he and his family have been falsely implicated in the Umesh Pal murder case in Prayagraj and he may be killed in a fake encounter by the UP Police.
In his plea, Atiq Ahmed said the UP police were in all likelihood seeking his transit remand and police remand to take him from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj and he "genuinely apprehends that he may be eliminated during this transit period".
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)