ATIQ AHMED MURDER CASE
- Who Is Atiq Ahmed?
Atiq Ahmed, who was born on August 10, 1962, started out as a criminal but later became involved in politics in India. He was a member of the Samajwadi Party and held positions in both the Indian Parliament and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. Despite facing over 160 criminal charges, Ahmed continued to participate in elections even while in jail. As of March 2023, the Uttar Pradesh Police had seized assets valued at ₹11,684 crore (US$1.5 billion) that belonged to him and his family. In connection with the 2005 murder of his political adversary Raju Pal, he was convicted guilty of kidnapping a witness who had testified against him. Ahmed remained incarcerated until his murder on April 15, 2023, while on his way to a medical checkup that had been ordered by the court.
Atiq Ahmed was born in 1962 to an economically disadvantaged family, with his father working as a horse-cart driver in Allahabad. He tied the knot with Shaista Praveen and together they had five sons. Ahmed’s sibling Khalid Azim, who went by the name Ashraf, was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Samajwadi Party.
## Political Career
Ahmed started his political career by winning a seat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as an independent candidate from Allahabad West in 1989. He won this seat again in 1991 and 1993 as an independent and in 1996 as a member of the Samajwadi Party (SP). Ahmed then left the SP in 1999 to become the president of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and won the Allahabad West seat in 2002. However, he rejoined the SP in 2003 and was elected as the Lok Sabha Member of Parliament for Phulpur in 2004, leading to his resignation from the MLA seat in Allahabad. In 2007, he was expelled from SP for providing protection to men with allegations of rape in a Madrasa.
Ahmed was allowed to contest the 2009 Indian general elections since he had not been convicted in any criminal case, but he was expelled from the Samajwadi Party in 2008, and he was refused by mayawati for a ticket in her party BSP. Later, he contested elections for the Apna Dal party in Pratapgarh but lost the election. In 2012, he contested the Uttar Pradesh elections for the Allahabad (West) constituency from jail under the Apna Dal banner, but he lost to Puja Pal.
In 2014, Ahmed joined the Samajwadi Party again and contested the national elections for the Shrawasti constituency. He secured a quarter of the votes but lost to Daddan Mishra of the BJP by almost 100,000 votes.
## Criminal Activities
Ahmed started his criminal career by stealing coal from trains and later progressed to threatening contractors to get railway scrap metal tenders. He was first accused of murder in 1979 and built a network of crime in Allahabad. Ahmed worked with other mafia members in the area, including Chand Baba, and became more powerful after his main competitor, Shaukat Ilahi, was killed in 1990. Ahmed was known for extortion, kidnapping, and murder.
In 2004, Ahmed left his Allahabad West MLA seat to become an MP in Phulpur, and his younger brother Khalid Azim ran for the seat but lost to BSP candidate Raju Pal. The following year, Raju Pal was killed, and Khalid Azim won the next by-election and became the MLA. Ahmed was arrested as the main suspect in the case but was later granted bail.
After Mayawati became the Chief Minister of the state, she put pressure on Ahmed, and he surrendered and was arrested in 2008. In 2016, Ahmed and his associates allegedly assaulted staff members of Sam Higginbottom University after they took action against two cheating students. Ahmed was arrested the following day, and the Allahabad High Court ordered the arrest of all the accused in the case after summoning Ahmed’s criminal history.
Ahmed was found guilty of kidnapping Umesh Pal in 2019, who was an important witness in the Raju Pal murder case, in which Ahmed was also involved. On February 24th, 2023, Umesh Pal was killed in a violent attack involving shooting and bombing, and Ahmed was suspected to be the main culprit in this murder case. His brother Ashraf, son Asad, and associate Guddu Muslim, who is known for making bombs and has a history of violent crimes, were also accused in the case. Ahmed was transferred from Prayagraj Central Jail to Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad in June 2019.
- Murder Case
On April 13th, 2023, Asad, the son of Ahmed, who was wanted in connection with the murder of Umesh Pal, was killed by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force during an operation in Jhansi. Two days later, Ahmed was being escorted by the police for a medical checkup when he was questioned about his absence at his son’s funeral. He responded that he wasn’t taken there. Before his brother Ashraf could finish his sentence, someone fired a pistol at Ahmed’s head, killing him instantly. Ashraf was also killed in the attack, which was captured and broadcast live on television. The attackers, who pretended to be media personnel, surrendered after the murder while chanting “Jai Shree Ram” they were then arrested on spot by the police present there.
