Atiq the artful dodger, his son’s short run and swift end

While Asad, 19, has now been killed, Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen is still absconding. The third of the couple’s five sons, Asad was a first-year student at a law college.

The couple’s two elder sons are jailed in other cases, while two minor ones are housed by the authorities in a shelter home.

Brought to Prayagraj Thursday, from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat, Atiq told media that he had been “reduced to dust”, and pleaded with the government that his wife and children be left alone.

Earlier, Atiq had expressed the apprehension that he might be killed during the 1,200-km journey that he made from the Sabarmati Jail to Prayagraj for an earlier court hearing.

This is quite a turnaround for the 60-year-old gangster-turned-politician who has survived many regime changes in Uttar Pradesh in his nearly four-decade run, under the benefaction of different parties, while straddling the permeable world of crime and politics in the state.

A certified “history-sheeter” as well as former MP and five-time MLA, he has almost 100 cases against him and, as per latest UP police records, runs a gang with “144 members”. His lawyer Vijay Mishra said trials in 50 cases against him are pending.

He is lodged in Sabarmati Jail in connection with an assault on faculty members of an agricultural research institute in Prayagraj in 2016. He was shifted to the Gujarat prison in 2019 on the Supreme Court’s direction.

But that is the lesser known of the cases involving Atiq who, from the infamous guest-house incident that changed the course of the UP political history, to allegedly abducting a businessman, bringing him to a jail and getting him to sign some papers inside, is used to making more sensational headlines.

He has been brought to Prayagraj now, along with his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, in connection with the Umesh Pal murder.

Days ago, a court convicted him in the 2006 kidnapping of the same Umesh Pal, along with Saulat Hanif, a lawyer, and Dinesh Pasi, and sentenced them to rigorous life imprisonment. In that case, the court acquitted Ashraf.

The rise of Atiq

Atiq’s first run-in with the police is recorded as back as 1984 when he was booked for attempting a murder in Prayagraj.

Five years later, in 1989, Atiq won his first election as an MLA from Allahabad West, as an Independent. After he retained his seat in the next two Assembly elections as well, also as an Independent, the SP opened its doors to him.

Then, in 1995, Atiq came to notice with the guest-house incident. It involved the attack on the complex where the then Chief Minister Mayawati was staying with her MLAs. Alleged MLAs and workers of the SP surrounded the guest-house and went on a rampage, angry over the BSP having broken ties with the SP and seeking out the BJP to form the government. Mayawati had to lock herself in a room while several of her MLAs were “captured”, and later claimed to have defected to the SP.

In 1996, Atiq won from Allahabad West the fourth time, as an SP candidate.

Three years later, he moved to the Apna Dal, and in 2002, again won the seat. By 2004, it was the SP again for him, and this time he won from the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat (once represented by Jawaharlal Nehru).

A year later, came the case for which Atiq finds himself in trouble now. In 2004, in the bypoll held for the Allahabad West seat, after Atiq had moved to the Lok Sabha, BSP candidate Raju Pal defeated his brother Ashraf, fighting on an SP ticket. In January 2005, Raju Pal was gunned down, along with two of his associates, and Atiq was named as an accused along with Ashraf and others. Ashraf now has 52 cases against him and is currently lodged in a Bareilly jail.

With the SP in power in the state at the time, on the Supreme Court’s orders, the case was transferred to the CBI. It filed a chargesheet in 2019 against 10 people.

Subsequently, Atiq was also booked by the agency for a 2018 incident involving the alleged kidnapping of Lucknow-based businessman Mohit Jaiswal, who was taken to Deoria district jail, where the former was lodged at the time. Jaiswal claimed he was forced to sign documents for property worth Rs 48 crore in favour of his associates.

The family

Atiq’s eldest son Mohammad Umar, who is currently lodged in a Lucknow district jail, is a co-accused in the Jaiswal case. His second son, Mohammad Ali Ahmed, is currently in Naini jail for alleged involvement in a case of assault on a property dealer in December 2021.

Apart from the Umesh Pal killing, Shaista Parveen has had at least three other cases registered against her since 2019 under forgery and arms charges at the Colonelganj police station in Prayagraj. The cases are pending in court, said a police officer.

Earlier this year, in January, Parveen joined the BSP. After the police named her in the Umesh murder case, the BSP has distanced itself from Parveen.

While on the run, Parveen moved a local court in Prayagraj saying that the police had “illegally” taken away two of her minor sons – apart from the three named in police cases or in jail – on the evening of February 24 and that she had no information about them. The police later told a local court that the boys had been found in Prayagraj and were admitted to a child protection home.

Recently, Umesh’s wife Jaya met Raju’s wife Pooja, who is ironically now an SP MLA from Kaushambi, and has sought “Y” category security for herself and police protection for three eyewitnesses in her husband’s murder case.

The govt action

The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government, which has pledged to act against the “mafia”, claims to have seized properties worth Rs 350 crore linked to Atiq. The Prayagraj district administration also says it has released properties amounting to Rs 751 crore forcibly occupied by Atiq and his associates. Besides, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case against him.