ATIQ AHMED: THE MAKING AND THE UNMAKING OF A MAFIA

His life and death was an aberration to the rule of law.

by MIHIR SRIVASTAVA

Atiq Ahmed was dead before he knew he was being killed. The first bullet ruptured his brain and he collapsed in a heap. There was not a moment between him alive and dead. It was a smooth exit orchestrated by three rural men from eastern Uttar Pradesh, who find gun battle thrilling, unleashing violence as a vindication of their manhood. They–Lavlesh Tiwari, Mohit alias Sunny and Arun Maurya–all are petite men below 23 years of age, and killing Atiq was a sure-shot ticket to stardom in the underworld. They are not particularly wrong. However, there's a missing piece of the puzzle that indicates a larger conspiracy, a mastermind. The two 9mm Turkish-made Zinana pistol they used, worth 6 lakh each, is banned in India.

They did kill the most notorious mafia of Prayagraj who also happened to represent the city in the temple of democracy–Lok Sabha, more than once. A plain thug with a gun, Atiq, has a 40-year-old-long history of being a trigger-happy land grabber. He grew in stature and notoriety with time, and to ensure immunity from the law of the land, he become a lawmaker and expanded his mafia-dom.

To his credit, Atiq, who started as a cart puller in Chakia, a small urban pocket in Prayagraj, became a string-puller, a force to reckon with. The law enforcers were at the receiving end. A rogue who had the power to badger his political masters. People of his clan revered him and had a sizeable following, but much of it was out of fear. Many locals voted for him to tame the monster.

Like many political parties and his own Samajwadi Party, his mafia-dom was a good example of the family enterprise. With him, his brothers, sons, wife, and members of the extended family participated in spreading the tentacles of his empire, with much success. For instance, his wife Shaista, who is now on the run, has four cases against her.

The cash-rich empire, and its blood-stained dealings, were lubricated by fear: land grabbing, intimidation, extortion, and all possible illegal means were employed to ensure that the empire makes a superlative profit. They lived in a stainless white mansion, which was recently demolished by the emboldened local administration. Cops since Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) have started asserting themselves and the rule of law–some would argue in an extrajudicial way.

But when the Samajwadi Party (SP) was in power, the governments of both father and son, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, respectively, Atiq was like a rogue elephant let loose to roam the streets with impunity.

And there are many instances of his rogue behaviour. In 2006, when the SP government was in power, Atiq raided with a bunch of his goons the residence of Rakesh Bahadur, the then chairman of Noida-Greater Noida. Rakesh was not at home, his old mother confronted Atiq, and he misbehaved with the elderly lady. This went on for 40 minutes. The powerful IAS lobby appealed to the government to take action but couldn’t even get an FIR against Atiq. In another instance, he held two dozen cops captive in his mansion in Allahabad (now Prayagraj). The government of the day cajoled him to release them.

His bloody dealings are told like folklore in gory details–he got a man unskinned who had rubbed him up the wrong way, before dumping what remained of his body at a busy crossing. The first FIR was registered against him in 1979 for murder and the last FIR, 104th, was filed just a day before he was killed. He first got elected in 1999 to the state legislature from Allahabad West as an Independent candidate. And as they say, the rest is history.

Almost 25 years later he lies dead on the dusty street of the same city like a heap of bones. His hand cuffed with that of his brother and confidante, Ashraf, blood draining out of their skulls. Fourteen bullets were sprayed on them, killing them both in a few moments. Atiq took nine, Ashraf took five, and not one missed the targets.

While Atiq and Ashraf were taken to a local hospital for statutory medical examination, some journalists surrounded him and made queries. The assassins were masquerading as journalists. Atiq’s last words were a reply to a question about not being able to attend the funeral of his son Asad a day earlier because the cops “didn’t take me there.” The second youngest of his five sons, Asad, 19, with an affiliate Gulam Hussian, 32, was gunned down in an encounter near the Parichha embankment in Badagaon police station of Jhansi district.

A few days earlier, Atiq, speaking to a reporter from behind the iron mesh of a police van, had appealed to the government of UP. “I’m reduced to mud. Please don’t harm the women and children of my family,” he said in Hindi. The reporter, in a quintessential journalistic argumentative tone, asked, “Why did you indulge in mafia-giri?”

He made a cardinal error in the arrogance of his power in 2005 when he allegedly got Raju Pal, a sitting MLA from Bahujan Samaj Party, killed. Raju, a few months before he was killed, had defeated Ashraf in the legislative elections. Ashraf couldn’t take the defeat and allegedly got Raju killed, the latter was killed after a filmy broad daylight car chase. Ashraf was the main accused in the case. Perhaps Atiq wanted to send a clear message: never dare to compete with his clan in an electoral battle, even if you do, don’t win. That victory is a death warrant. But he ended up signing his own that day. Raju's wife for nine days at the time of his murder, Puja, too shocked to say much, mumbled, "God will do justice."

Even after 18 years, charges have not been framed. On February 2 this year, Atiq's henchmen, which included Asad and Gulam, killed Umesh Pal in the broad daylight. Umesh was the only eyewitness who could have linked Atiq to Raju Pal’s murder. Soon after the murder of Umesh, chief minister Adityanath vowed on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha that Atiq will meet the dust where he belongs. He kept his word. All six accused in the Umesh Pal murder have since been liquidated in police encounters, but for the two–Atiq and Ashraf–who met their end in the hands of three trigger-happy youths.

Former chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, who is the president of Samajwadi Party–Atiq’s party, tweeted soon after Atiq’s head was blown off during a live telecast, “Crime has reached its peak in UP and the morale of the criminals is high. When someone can be killed by firing openly amidst the security cordon of the police, then what about the safety of the general public.” The police chief of UP, RK Vishwarkarma constituted a three-member supervisory panel to assist Special Investigation Team to investigate how the three assassins breached the security cordon to kill the two brothers.

Akhilesh Yadav makes an interesting point. The law and order situation is at its worst, according to him, when the mafia is unsafe even in police custody. In the last few years, at least 50 criminals surrendered, fearing police encounters or bulldozers rolling over their homes. For they felt safest inside the jail and didn't want to be amongst 183 gangsters killed in alleged ‘encounters’ in UP. As many as 13 cops lost their lives in these encounters and 1,428 were reported injured since March 2017 when Adityanath came to power. Also, 20,068 FIRs were registered under the Gangsters Act and 64,039 persons arrested so far. The cops have seized, demolished, or freed immovable and movable assets acquired through illegal means worth a fortune: Rs. 9,162 crores to be precise.

Atiq’s killing proved that judicial custody is no guarantee of safety to the mafia. And there is a problem.

But Akhilesh must be asked: is allowing a mafia to operate with impunity a sign of robust law and order?

Atiq was buried next to his son Asad—whose grave is still very fresh. It is the end of an era in the annals of crime history in the state of UP. Atiq feared that his death might not be sufficient, and his clan might have to pay the price for being part of his syndicate. There are 4 sons, still. They are seething in anger, violence is the only way they know to settle a score. They are used to killing not being killed. Fear is a good sentiment if they want to survive after Atiq. Events of the recent past indicate violent retribution by the Atiq gang only hastens the pace of the destruction of their empire. Leading a normal life might be the only option, that is if they want to live.