Atiq Ahmed was a creation of mafia-cop-politician nexus

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 21

The rise and fall of Uttar Pradesh gangster Atiq Ahmed, killed along with his brother Ashraf in police custody last Saturday, has again raised question marks on the will of the state, and its police and civil bureaucracy to act in time and nip crime in the bud.

The murders caught on camera have brought the UP Government and the state police under the scanner for failing to protect transiting convicts during court appearances.

For over four decades starting 1978, when he committed his first murder, Atiq had a free run in UP, grabbing land, indulging in contract killings and accumulating immense wealth.

While his killing is under police and judicial investigation, the turn of events has brought criminal-police-politician nexus — first flagged by the NN Vohra Committee in 1993 — back in focus.

The committee, led by then Union Home Secretary Vohra and constituted in the wake of 1993 Bombay blasts, had noted, “Various crime syndicates and mafia have developed significant muscle and money power and established linkages with governmental functionaries and political leaders to be able to operate with impunity.”

The panel recommended a nodal agency to track the criminal nexus, but nothing happened.

Attributing Atiq’s rise to the same unholy nexus, former state DGP Vikram Singh says, “Had Atiq been crushed in time, this edifice of shame would not have come up. The Vohra Committee had elaborated on the criminal-officer-politician nexus. But shockingly, the report never came out. It is relevant even today and should be acted upon.”

Atiq’s crime syndicate flourished mainly after he entered politics in 1989 winning his first election from Allahabad West. He was elected MLA five times — thrice as Independent, once on the SP ticket and once on the ticket of the Apna Dal, currently an NDA ally. In 2004, Ahmed won from the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat on the SP nomination.

“Without an iota of doubt, Atiq was a creation of the political system. There was never a check on his crimes. As Allahabad SP (City) between 1988 and 1990, I tried to arrest him for threatening a cop, but then CM Mulayam Singh Yadav instructed otherwise,” recalls OP Singh, former UP DGP.

Even BSP chief Mayawati wanted to field Atiq’s wife Shaista (currently on the run) in the mayoral poll from Prayagraj, but later dropped the idea.

Vikram Singh notes how politics makes strange bedfellows, and recalls that Atiq was part of the mob that attacked Lucknow VIP guest house, where Mayawati was staying in 1995.

Another former UP DGP Prakash Singh also speaks of the Vohra Committee report which, in 1993, quoted IB Director’s admission that the “mafia network was virtually running a parallel government, pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance”.

“The report’s suggestion to set up a nodal agency to address the menace was never adopted. Atiq Ahmeds will continue to flourish unless state governments, tasked with maintenance of law and order, stop political patronage to criminals, demolish their economic empires and punish complicit officers,” he said.

In Atiq’s case, none of this was done. His downfall began only after the 2005 murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal who was killed for defeating Ashraf from Allahabad West in the 2004 bypoll. Atiq was convicted and sentenced for life in March this year for the 2007 kidnapping of Umesh Pal, a witness in Raju Pal’s murder.