Why has Atiq Ahmed’s journey from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj created so much media interest
Vibha Sharma
Chandigarh, March 27
As it made its way from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj, the Uttar Pradesh police convoy ferrying gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed was covered minute to minute by media persons.
When the police vehicle carrying Ahmed hit a cow in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh before entering Jhansi, the incident was duly reported. “The cow fell near the road divider. After the incident, the vehicle stopped for a while before resuming the onward journey,” according to agency reports.
When the convoy halted briefly to allow Ahmed to answer the nature’s call, he was asked by reporters if he was “afraid” (of being killed in an encounter/accident)” to which he reportedly replied “kahe ka dar (what fear)”
Though, after coming out of the Sabarmati central jail, Ahmed had expressed fear that he might be murdered.
“Mujhe inka program maloom hai, hatya” (I know their plan is to kill me),” Ahmed said as he was pushed into the van by cops.
“Hatya, hatya (murder, murder),” he is reported to have said.
The former Samajwadi Party MP was lodged in the Gujarat jail since June 2019.
Apprehensions that Ahmed might meet “Vikas Dubey-like fate” stemmed from the number of “encounters” reported during the six-year rule of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who has pledged to eradicate mafias and criminals from state.
Vikas Dubey ‘encounter’?
Incidentally, the inquiry commission has found “no evidence” against the UP police in the alleged encounter of Vikas Dubey.
Rather, it blamed the public, the media and Dubey’s family for not coming forward with proof, according to reports.
Dubey was gunned down in July 2020 by the Special Task Force of UP police after the vehicle in which he was being brought to Kanpur from Ujjain overturned on a highway.
The police claimed that after the accident Dubey tried to flee. He snatched a policeman’s gun and opened fire, they claimed. The gangster was being taken for a court case.
Ahmed is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the recent Umesh Pal murder case.The social media has been rife with speculations of Ahmed’s vehicle overturning like Dubey’s.
Yogi government versus criminals
According to some recent statements by the UP police, as many as 5,967 criminals have been arrested in 10713 encounters in the six years of Yogi Adityanath as the CM and 178 criminals eliminated. Those killed in these encounters were accused of seriousoffences, officialssaid.
The Adityanath government has adopted a policy of “zero tolerance against mafias and intensified crackdown on anti-social elements to strengthen UP’s law and order situation”.
As soon as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took over the reins of the state, improving the law and order situation in the state became his priority.
The crackdown created fear after which many criminals fled from the state, they said.
While Adityanath seems to be following the model once used by the Maharashtra police to eliminate dreaded gangsters who wrecked havoc in financial capital Mumbai around three decades ago, experts advise caution.
“The legal way is complex. The loopholes often make gangsters get away, walk out of jail easily even after they have been arrested. However, giving the police this kind of power needs caution,” officials say.
Mumbai encounters turned “encounter specialists” like Vijay Salaskar, Pradeep Sharma and Daya Nayak into household names.
But while Mumbai’s underworld collapsed, the ‘encounter specialists’ were also accused of extra judicial killings and human rights violations and pulled up by the courts.
The biggest drawback, however, was that working with networks that included hardcore criminals made some of those entrusted with eliminating crime being themselves accused of criminal activities.
