Why Atiq Ahmed failed to read the writing on the wall

In Allahabad of the mid-1970s, a boy failed his Class 10 exams. Son of tonga-puller Feroz Ahmed, the boy, who was just 17 summers old, killed a man in 1979. Not only did the boy get away with the murder, the crime also catapulted him into a local star for the 17-year-old had not just killed someone but had in doing so also challenged the reign of then entrenched don Shauq Ilahi, aka Chand Baba.

Chand Baba’s writ ran large in Allahabad, now Prayagraj. Such was the mafia don’s fear that not just police, even politicians refrained from coming in his way. In Uttar Pradesh, the mafia and politics have been barely distinguishable for decades. Chand Baba’s case was no different. The don chose to take the boy under his wings, unaware that the juvenile would 10 years later prove to be his nemesis.

In 1989, Chand Baba was contesting elections for Uttar Pradesh assembly. Pitted against him in Allahabad’s electoral arena was the Class 10 fail boy Atiq Ahmed. Chand Baba threatened Atiq, now 27 years old, to withdraw his nomination. Atiq didn’t budge, instead he went on to defeat Chand Baba. But Atiq wasn’t done just winning his way into the Uttar Pradesh assembly. So, three months after Atiq won the election, Chand Baba was attacked with guns and bombs. Those in the know say that Atiq was propped against Chand Baba by the then political powers who wanted to “fix the latter”. Atiq then can safely be called a state creation. By finishing off Chand Baba, Atiq had established his mafia fiefdom in the region, where people would shiver at the mere mention of his name for over three decades that followed. In local parlance, he was now a bahubali.

But a full 34 years later, Atiq ‘the bahubali’ was barely recognisable as he pleaded through the media for mercy, claiming “Hum bilkul mitti mai mil gaye hain. Ab hamari aurton aur bachhon ko pareshan na karen. (I have been dusted. Now, please spare my wife and children.)”

Unlike other Uttar Pradesh mafia dons such as Raja Bhaiya, Atiq did not hail from any prominent family. After his first murder, Atiq started working as a bouncer for Salim Sherwani, a Congress MP and owner of Geep Flashlight Company in Prayagraj.

Atiq then started taking supari (contracts) for abduction and murders. He went on to run a virtual parallel state in Allahabad west, especially in Chakia, an area from which he hailed. Some 100-120 youngsters worked under him and helped spread both fear and the empire. Atiq soon became a larger than life character in the region. Not only did all business deals need his stamp of approval, even matters like division of property and amount of dowry in families of the area came to be decided by Atiq.

The Uttar Pradesh Police claim that they have seized around 75 acres of land under his control and hundreds of crores worth of property. But those who know him well believe this is just a fraction of what Atiq had acquired. So, how did he come to build an empire worth hundreds of crores?

Atiq not only used extortion as a way to make money, he also emerged as the prime land mafia in Allahabad. He became an expert in grabbing government land, vested land and disputed land. What Atiq grabbed was not barren land. It was fertile agricultural land in the Gangetic belt. A lot of this land subsequently had real estate projects spring up and so the mafia don minted huge amounts of money. From arranging jobs as teachers and drivers to settling petty business disputes, Atiq had his fingers pretty much in every pie.

While the aftermath of his killing on April 15 saw eruption of full blown communal politics with his killers raising ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans after shooting him along with his brother Ashraf Ameen and opposition parties insinuating that he was killed at the behest of UP government because of his religion, Atiq’s own style of functioning was pretty ‘secular’.

He would help Hindus and Muslims alike. All those who went to him with an invitation for their daughter’s wedding would get Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000. Even the sick would get money for treatment if they approached Atiq for help.

“Atiq was demonised more than he deserved. Common people never suffered at his hands. All his rivalries were with either contractor-mafia or politicians who wanted to capture his fiefdom. Even his rivalry with Raju Pal began because Raju Pal wanted to marginalise Atiq in mafia activities. During his interrogation, Atiq had named many top politicians and bureaucrats who had helped him amass the wealth and who were on his payrolls. As much as Yogi Adityanath’s personal obsession, the desperation of many notables in the political class, who wanted to see him dead to save their own skin, also equally explains his brazen killing in the lawless land of UP,” a resident of Allahabad’s Daryabad, where Atiq also lived, told The Federal.

The beginning of the end

Atiq’s mafia empire thrived in Prayagraj until the arrival of Yogi Adityanath.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) team killed one Usman Atiq’s 19-year-old son Asad Ahmed and his aide Ghulam Hussain, 32, on April 13 in an encounter after they were reportedly identified as among shooters who killed advocate Umesh Pal, the witness in the 2005 murder of Raju Pal, an ex-MLA of Bahujan Samaj Party, and two police gunners, in Prayagraj on February 24.

Within less than 72 hours, Atiq too was killed along with his brother Ashraf while being taken to hospital for medical check-up. Many see the saga as ‘five counter killings for one Umesh Pal killing’. The whole of Atiq’s empire came crumbling down just as chief minister Yogi Adityanath promised when he thundered in the UP assembly ‘mafia ko mitti mai mila denge’ after Umesh Pal’s murder.

Atiq’s two sons Ali and Umar — are jailed in other cases, while two minor ones are housed by the authorities in a shelter home. His wife Shaista, sister and his brother’s wife are absconding. So, there is no one out there to claim the empire.

Several theories are doing the rounds about how Atiq was killed in police custody. Some think that Atiq’s killing was a stage-managed by the powers that be. What they cite as proof is the total inaction by the police at the crime spot and their failure to fire even a single bullet at the three killers who pumped no less than 36 bullets into Atiq and Ashraf. Some are also raising questions over the need to take Atiq and Ashraf to hospital at night and then make the duo walk inside the hospital when there was enough parking space inside.

Another theory contends that a minister who had reportedly borrowed Rs 5 crore from Atiq wanted to get rid of him to avoid repaying. He reportedly got some police officials, who wanted to please the powers in Lucknow, to manipulate three petty criminals to kill Atiq, promising them big money and bail after a few months in jail.

The political backdrop

How the political climate prevailing in UP favoured the emergence of such bahubalis and even small-time gangsters? The reasons are three-fold: One is political patronage. Second is the police-criminal nexus. And the third is the inefficient lower judiciary where delivery of quick justice is virtually impossible.

Many gangsters had a free reign during the Samajwadi Party regime. Akhilesh Yadav distanced himself from some of these gangsters but did not come down with an iron hand to cleanse the society of these outlaws. Mayawati’s approach was also selective—a different set of gangsters thrived under her though on the whole she kept major bahubalis under a tight leash, especially the bahubalis who were Yadavs or had emerged from other OBC castes. This earned her a lot of political goodwill among the middle classes, especially the business community.

Yogi too has so far kept a selective approach in dealing with the mafia dons. He has allowed a set of goons from Hindu upper castes to continue their operations but within limits. He has been unforgiving of the others. In 2022 assembly polls, his popularity as a strong leader who could crack down on crime and criminals won him huge support.
For historical reasons, in the specific conditions prevailing in Uttar Pradesh, running a good administration is identified more with maintaining law and order and not so much with promoting industrialization and economic development. Yogi’s bulldozer politics and rhetoric of mafia ko mitti mai mila denge have found wide support on the ground.

Yogi saw that Mayawati earlier had limited success in this regard and, seeing his own success in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 assembly polls on the plank of a “strong leader”, he seems to have gotten carried away and went overboard in curbing criminals. Yogi appears to have taken a fancy for shooting mafia in cold blood. Asad’s encounter was the 183th such killing since Yogi took office in 2017.

Though the killing of Atiq and Ashraf was not exactly an encounter killing, they were the 184th and 185th gangsters to die as part of the anti-gangster campaign.

Breeding gangsters

The socio-economic fabric of UP opens up the space for the mushrooming of criminals. A lot of money generated from the agricultural affluence in the irrigated Gangetic belts flows into small towns. Earlier Prayagraj was an educational hub and Varanasi was a spiritual centre. Both have now metamorphosed into huge commercial towns. Tens of thousands of people from rich rural households from the peri-urban areas have flocked to these towns to become ‘bijinezzmen’. They mostly work as small wholesale traders, shopkeepers, or small-time contractors executing public works contracts.

Earlier, disputes over land and women used to dominate the region. Now, the new market forces have brought in their own set of issues such as supply of spurious material or overcharging or unpaid loans. Land and property disputes have also acquired a new dimension. There has been a rise in cases of land grab involving prime real estate urban land even as traditional agricultural land and property sharing disputes in the villages within the large extended families continue.

No markets can function in the absence of a strong state to regulate the market forces and enforce the law of contract. The state has to ensure that the rule of law prevails. In the absence of political authority, it can only be a jungle raj and only might can be right.

Over the years, the political authority has colluded with the mafia. And the judiciary has evoked little confidence. A Prabhat Khabar report revealed that 10 judges had recused themselves from a court case involving Atiq. The 11th judge agreed to hear the case and granted bail to the accused Atiq Ahmed in all the cases filed against him.

In such a situation, mafia dons enjoyed a free run in the state.

Atiq too drew his power from this administrative and judicial failure. His brazen criminal activities like kidnapping, land grab, extortion, and contract killings were reported by the media. But there was lesser limelight on his kangaroo courts. Hundreds of people used to throng his ‘darbar’ everyday with their grievances, mostly commercial disputes. If someone came up with a complaint, Atiq used to send ‘summons’ to the other party. If that person didn’t turn up, he would send his goons to abduct them and bring them forcefully. He would then troubleshoot, patiently listening to both sides.

Vijay, a hair-dresser and supporter of Bahujan Samaj Party, in adjacent Rasoolabad, who used to render service to Atiq’s family, told The Federal that Atiq had extraordinary persuasive skill in bringing around the disputants. “He used to come up with his own rustic ethical arguments characteristic of the embedded mafia. He used to fix a deal between the contending parties and assume responsibility to guarantee that the deal remained in place. Punishment would be swift if either side broke the deal thus brokered,” Vijay said.

In such an atmosphere, only those with some power — be it political or muscle power — could thrive.

“Chand Baba was the don in Allahabad before Atiq. He contested 1989 assembly polls and lost. The administration got Atiq to kill Chand Baba to ensure he never rises again. Atiq became more powerful. Atiq was thus a Frankenstein monster promoted by the administration itself,” Shivsevak Singh, an ex-corporator in Prayagraj, told The Federal.

Bahubalis are usually politically intelligent men. But Atiq Ahmed, though he became an MLA twice and an MP once, was not politically smart in making the right judgement. The writing on the wall for the gangsters under Yogi was clear. Everybody realised that times had changed for the mafia gangs. Most dons—except those who under Yogi’s patronage — are on the run. In such a scenario, Atiq’s move to kill Umesh Pal, especially after Umesh Pal recorded his statement before a magistrate in the Raju Pal murder case, reeks of naivete.

Atiq failed to read the political signals coming from the Samajwadi Party too. Unlike his father Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh doesn’t want to be seen as taking up the cause of Muslim leaders or mafia men. Mayawati too considers Atiq a traitor. Without any powerful political patron, Atiq blindly gave Yogi Adityanath an opportunity to appear to be acting tough and make his crackdown a high-profile media spectacle to improve his own political stock as a strong leader who means business.

Seema Azad, a People’s Union for Civil Liberties leader in Prayagraj, said, “Our petition in the Supreme Court against extra-judicial killings in UP is still being heard and there is even an SC judgement in another case against extra-judicial killings and despite that the UP government is going ahead with such killings.”

Unfortunately, no one in the BJP’s central leadership, bureaucracy or the larger Sangh Parivar is able to impress upon Yogi that while eliminating the mafia is good, bringing them to books under due process of law is the sign of more mature leadership.

Given the situation, there seems to be no early way out of the vicious cycle of mafia terror and counter state terror in Uttar Pradesh.