Those facing heat in Yogi govt’s ‘zero-tolerance’ towards crime

Admirers and loyalists of Adityanath cite police action against three people – former MLAs Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed and Mohammad Azam Khan – to prove that his government is not willing to spare even the high and the mighty if they are caught on the wrong side of the law.

Recently, two more politicians – former MLC Haji Iqbal alias Bala and former UP minister Haji Yaqub Qureshi – have been added to the list.

While Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed, who have long criminal records, are currently lodged in jail, Haji Iqbal and Yaqub Qureshi are on the run.

The police have lodged criminal cases against them, announced rewards on their heads and confiscated the properties of Mukhtar, Atiq and Haji Iqbal under Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. “Details about Yakub’s properties are being collected and action will be taken soon,” a police source said.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that a special anti-mafia task force has been created and action against powerful mafia is being monitored by the DGP headquarters. Kumar added that prosecution in all cases is being done to ensure conviction of the guilty.

The Enforcement Directorate is probing the role of four of the five politicians and their family members in money laundering cases. The state opposition has alleged that the politicians are being harassed because of political vendetta.

Haji Yaqub Qureshi

On March 31, a joint team of food safety and drug administration and police conducted a raid at a meat factory run by Yaqub Qureshi and his family members. The raid was conducted on a tip-off that meat of sub-standard quality was being packaged for sale at the factory.

“It was found that the license for running the factory, located at Khar Khuda in Meerut, had expired,” a police officer said.

A case was lodged against Yaqub and his family members including his two sons, Imran Qureshi and Firoz Qureshi, and wife Sanjeeda Begum. They were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of any disease dangerous to life), section 272 (adulteration of food), section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 273 (selling food which is unfit for consumption).

Investigating officer of the case and SHO of Kithaur police station, Arvind Mohan Sharma, said that chargesheet has been filed against 17 people including Yaqub. He added that Yaqub and his son Firoz are absconding, while his wife Sanjeeda has been granted bail in the case. “The court has directed us not to take any coercive action against Imran Qureshi,” said Sharma, adding that a reward of Rs 25,000 has been declared on Yaqub.

On November 11, the Meerut police lodged a fresh case against seven people including Yaqub, his wife, and two sons under Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (Meerut) Keshav Kumar said that except Mujeeb, a close associate of Yaqub, the remaining accused in the case are absconding, and raids are being conducted to arrest them.

Yaqub won the 2007 assembly election from Meerut city as a candidate of the UP United Democratic Front (UDF),a political party that his brother Yusuf had floated before the elections. The UDF later merged with the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati and Yaqub was made the Minister for Minorities Welfare and Hajj in the BSP government.

Yaqub hit the headlines in 2006 after he announced a reward of Rs 51 crore on the head of a Dutch cartoonist for reportedly making a caricature of the Prophet.

In 2011, Yaqub allegedly slapped a police constable in public after he was asked to divert his cavalcade from the route of a procession. Constable Chahan Singh Balyan, then 56, had also alleged that Yaqub had torn his uniform.

Yaqub was suspended from the BSP the same year for his alleged derogatory remarks against Sikhs. He later joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal party.

As per police records, there are a total of 16 cases against Yaqub, of which three cases have been lodged in the last five years.

Mohammad Azam Khan

Senior Samajwadi Party leader and 10-term MLA from Rampur, Mohammad Azam Khan, was convicted to three years’ imprisonment last month in a hate speech case lodged against him during the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The hate speech case was lodged against Azam Khan for using derogatory words and giving a provocative speech during the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.

As per UP Police records, 83 cases have been registered against Azam Khan since the BJP government was voted to power in 2017. The cases have been filed on various charges including land grabbing, cheating and criminal trespass. The police have also registered around 41 cases against Azam Khan’s son Abdullah and 32 cases against his wife Fatima Tanzeen. Khan has been named a co-accused in some of these cases.

On February 26, 2020, Azam Khan, along with his wife and son, surrendered before a local court in Rampur in connection with a case related to alleged forgery of Abdullah’s birth certificate. He walked out of Sitapur jail after the Supreme Court granted him bail in May this year.

The latest case against Azam Khan was lodged in September after the police claimed to have recovered a road cleaning machine of the municipal corporation buried around three feet deep near the medical college of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. Azam Khan is the founder and chancellor of the university.

An FIR was lodged against Azam Khan, his son Abdullah Azam Khan and five others in Rampur under IPC section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) and section 120-B (criminal conspiracy). Police also invoked the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act against the accused.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing a money laundering case against Azam Khan. The case relates to transfer of funds to Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, which runs Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. In July this year, the ED recorded the statement of Azam’s son Abdullah. Last year, the agency issued notices to around two dozen people in connection with the case. A majority of those served with notices are from Rampur and had reportedly donated to the trust. The ED suspects that several people who donated to the trust received contracts as a quid pro quo from agencies involved in construction work and the supply of goods and materials.

Haji Iqbal alias Bala

Haji Iqbal is a prominent businessman of Saharanpur. Police claim he is involved in several illegal activities such as mining.

In August, Haji Iqbal was charged along with his three sons, Mohammad Afzal, Javed and Alishan, and brother Mehmood Ali, for gang-raping a woman. He is currently on the run, while his four sons and younger brother, Mehmood Ali, are lodged in jail.

As per UP Police records, a total of 31 cases have been registered against Haji Iqbal, of which 25 cases were lodged in the last five years. The cases relate to forgery, criminal intimidation, dacoity and criminal conspiracy among others. He has also been booked twice under UP Gangsters Act.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (Saharanpur) Suraj Kumar Rai said that Haji Iqbal, his brother, and his sons have been declared history-sheeters. “Haji Iqbal is carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head,” he added.

Police have confiscated properties worth around Rs 300 crore belonging to Haji Iqbal and his family members under Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. In a joint operation, the district administration and police demolished properties worth Rs 50 lakh allegedly owned by Haji Iqbal and his family members.

In October 2020, the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at properties belonging to Haji Iqbal and his associates after an FIR was registered under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED alleged that during investigation they found that Haji Iqbal and his family members have more than 110 companies registered in their names with the majority of the companies being shell companies.

ATIQ AHMED

A former Samajwadi Party MP and a five-term MLA from the Allahabad west seat, Atiq Ahmed has been declared a history-sheeter by the police.

With 99 cases against him filed on charges that include attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, Arms Act and UP Gangsters Act, Atiq has been lodged in jail since February 2017 after being booked for allegedly assaulting faculty members of an agriculture institute in Allahabad in 2016.

Atiq hit the headlines when he was booked in 2019 for allegedly assaulting a Lucknow-based businessman, Mohit Jaiswal, inside the Deoria district jail.
The victim alleged that on December 26, 2018, he was kidnapped from Lucknow and taken to Deoria jail, where he was assaulted by Atiq and his aides. The complainant claimed that Atiq forced him to sign documents to transfer the ownership of his firms worth Rs 48 crore in the name of two of his associates and also took his SUV.

An FIR was registered against Atiq, his son Mohammad Umar, and others at Lucknow’s Krishna Nagar police station in January, 2019. A separate case was also registered against the staff of Deoria jail.

Later, following orders of the Supreme Court, the case was transferred to the CBI and Atiq was shifted to a jail in Gujarat.

Police records reveal that properties worth over Rs 350 crore belonging to Atiq and his family members have been seized under UP Gangsters Act. The district administration has demolished and released properties forcibly occupied by Atiq and his associates worth around Rs 751 crore.

In 2021, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached bank accounts and a property registered in the name of Atiq and his wife Shaista Parveen worth Rs 8.14 crore. The ED launched the investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognizance of cases lodged against Atiq.

Mukhtar Ansari

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who has been behind bars for the last 17 years, became the object of a heated dispute between the state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab after the administration of Roopar jail in Punjab, where he has been lodged in connection with an extortion and criminal intimidation case, refused to transfer him to a jail in Uttar Pradesh citing report of doctors who advised Ansari against long travel on health grounds.

The UP government then moved the Supreme Court seeking Mukhtar’s custody. It alleged that the Punjab government was ‘shamelessly protecting’ Mukhtar, then a BSP MLA from Mau seat, by not handing over his custody to face trial in 10 heinous cases of murder, extortion, cheating, fraud and gangster acts.

In April 2021, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of Mukhtar to Uttar Pradesh.

UP police records reveal that a total of 59 cases have been registered against Mukhtar with 11 of them being filed in the last four years. Since 2019, Mukhtar has been booked four times under Uttar Pradesh Gangster and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.

Mukhtar was convicted in two cases this year. On September 21, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court sentenced Mukhtar to seven-year imprisonment in a case of assault on a jailer in 2003. In a separate case registered against him in Lucknow in 1999, under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters Act, the high court sentenced Mukhtar to five-year imprisonment.

Mukhtar, a five-term MLA who won assembly elections thrice from inside the jail, did not contest the 2022 UP election and fielded his son Abbas Ansari from the Mau Sadar seat instead.

Abbas contested and won the election as a candidate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an ally of the Samajwadi Party.

Mukhtar is currently lodged in Banda district jail. Last month, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Abbas in a money laundering case. The agency had earlier arrested Abbas’s maternal uncle Atif Raza in the same case. The case was lodged on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by the UP police against Mukhtar.

Police records reveal that properties worth around Rs 300 crore belonging to Mukhtar and his family have been seized by the UP government and properties worth around Rs 280 crore have been demolished or released from his possession.

In 2020, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) demolished two buildings registered in the name of Mukhtar and his family members. LDA officials said the structures had been built on an evacuee property and without an approved map. In Ghazipur, a hotel owned by Mukhtar’s family was demolished citing violation of building norms.