Days after gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari was brought back to Uttar Pradesh due to the untiring efforts of the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government, reports indicate that the time is ticking for another gangster-politician, who has been lodged in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad jail. Atiq Ahmad too is a mafia man turned politician and has been a five-time state legislator in UP, apart from also being elected to the Lok Sabha once on a Samajwadi Party ticket. Atiq Ahmad has over 195 cases pending against him, including those relating to murder, abduction, illegal mining, extortion, intimidation and fraud.
According to a report by Amar Ujala, the Uttar Pradesh police department is upbeat about bringing back Atiq Ahmad to the state, particularly after it was able to get Mukhtar Ansari back from Punjab, despite a mountain of hurdles laid out by the Congress government there. Atiq Ahmad, according to the Yogi government and the state’s police department, is living quite the life in Ahmedabad jail. According to the report, the gangster has made a ‘setting’ with some jail authorities and is being accorded all luxuries that a criminal would want when in jail.
These facilities include a mobile phone and seamless conversations with his friends and goons, many of whom have shifted to Gujarat too. Keeping in mind the empire that Ahmad seems to be running out of a jail cell, the Yogi Adityanath government seems convinced that he must be brought back o the state. For the same, it is willing to appeal before the court, although that might not be entirely necessary, since, unlike Punjab, the government in Gujarat is run by the BJP.
As such, the Yogi Adityanath government of UP will find getting a hold of Atiq Ahmad much easier. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also stepped in and has now registered a case of money laundering against Ahmad. The ED registered the case on Thursday and the action was initiated on the basis of pending cases against Atiq in police records. According to an official quoted by the Hindustan Times, “It is likely that ED would now try to locate moveable and immovable assets of Atiq, his kin and cohorts located both in India and abroad, believed to be in several crores. The ED would strive to trace these assets and initiate attachments process.”
In fact, cementing murmurs of the Yogi government indeed looking to bring back Atiq Ahmad now, Uttar Pradesh minister Anand Swarup Shukla said a day after Muktar Ansari was brought back, “The Uttar Pradesh government succeeded in bringing back Ansari despite several tricks by the Punjab government. Now we will try to bring Atiq Ahmad back from Gujarat.” He added that it is the duty of the state government to bring back such criminals to UP as they have to be punished for their crimes.
By the looks of it, the Yogi Adityanath-led government is only getting started with big-time criminals and working to bring them back to the state from various parts of the country and the world, so that they feel at home.