6 min readApr 24, 2023 08:56 AM IST
First published on: Apr 20, 2023 at 03:23 PM IST
In my 35 years of service in the police, I cannot recall any instance when the killing, rightly or wrongly, of a mafia don aroused so much public interest and generated so much controversy. In fact, if the central actors were removed from the scene and one were to hear only all the brouhaha, the temptation would be to conclude that a popular leader must have been killed. It reflects more the determination of the Opposition to derail the “double-engine government” in UP than the gravity of the events happening in the state.
Coming to specifics, as far back as 1993, the government constituted the N N Vohra committee “to take stock of all available information about the activities of crime syndicates/mafia organisations which had developed links with and were being protected by government functionaries and political personalities”. The committee recorded that “the network of the mafia is virtually running a parallel government, pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance”. It made certain recommendations, but there was no follow-up action. There were heated discussions in Parliament, but that was all. Gradually, the police and bureaucracy became part of this symbiotic mutually-beneficial relationship. The nexus has thrown up notorious mafia dons from time to time in different parts of the country — for instance, Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmad and Sri Prakash Shukla in UP.
How is this nexus to be broken? First, the political patronage and protection of the mafia must stop. Two, its economic empire has to be demolished. Three, the dons should be made accountable to the law. Four, the wings of police officers and bureaucrats, who are part of the nexus, should be clipped. UP should be credited for acting systematically on these lines. There is no political protection for the mafia at the highest level today. Their economic empire has been substantially degraded. According to state police, Atiq Ahmed and his family’s property worth Rs 1,169.20 crore has been either seized, recovered or demolished. Besides, 12 gangsters and their 29 aides were convicted — Mukhtar Ansari was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment while Atiq Ahmad was given life imprisonment. The wheels of justice had at last begun to move.
There were bound to be pitfalls on the way. Yogi Adityanath, unfortunately, has not been able to build a cohesive team of dedicated officers. On April 15, Atiq Ahmad and his brother, Ashraf, were shot by three unknown young criminals while being taken for a mandatory medical check-up. Security personnel escorting the accused were caught unawares and their response left much to be desired. What happened was avoidable and unfortunate. However, to allege that the state police were complicit in the crime would be unfair at this stage.
The state government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. The judicial probe and police investigation should reveal how these youngsters from Banda, Hamirpur and Kasganj got together or who roped them in, what was their motivation, who financed them, who provided them with Turkish pistols, were they tutored to raise the slogans they did, and other related matters. The explanation that they carried out the murders because they wanted to become “famous” is unconvincing.
Atiq’s son, Asad Ahmad, and his aide, Ghulam Hussain, were killed by the UP Police Special Task Force (STF) in an alleged encounter in Jhansi district on April 13. Both were allegedly involved in the murder of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder of Raju Pal, and two policemen. A mandatory magisterial inquiry will be held.
Meanwhile, the blame game is on. The judicial inquiry should expose — not that the facts are not already known — the politicians and the party which facilitated the rise of a tongawallah to the extent that he accumulated property worth thousands of crores and became such a power centre that officers kowtowed before him.
The Western media has also highlighted the killings. But their hypocrisy is revealing. The BBC has reported that a former MP has been killed and projected him as a Robinhood, not as a mafia don. The New York Times has sounded “alarm about India’s slide toward extrajudicial violence”. They forget that in the US about 1,000 civilians on average are killed in police shootings every year (1,096 in 2022, 1,048 in 2021).
The police are taking the rap for all that has gone wrong. Perhaps, they deserve it. What about fixing some accountability for the political class? After all, it is their patronage that nurtures the mafia. But for their protection, the criminal justice system would fix them right and proper. Is there any accountability of the magistracy? Atiq Ahmed grew in stature while district magistrates headed the criminal administration in the erstwhile Allahabad district. How is it that 54 cases involving Atiq Ahmed and his cohorts are still under trial, the oldest being a murder case that dates back to 1979?
Far back in 2003, Justice V S Malimath had warned us that the “criminal justice system is virtually collapsing”? Were corrective steps taken? Is anyone bothered about implementing the Supreme Court’s directions on police reforms?
The grim reality is if we do not break the nexus between criminals, politicians and government servants, if we do not take effective steps to prevent the entry of criminals into legislative assemblies and Parliament, and do not overhaul the criminal justice system and insulate the police from external pressures, the situation can only worsen.
The writer, a retired police chief, has been campaigning for police reforms for the last more than 25 years
Judicial team members at the crime scene, where three assailants shot dead gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, in Prayagraj. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav) 
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