Mafia-turned-politician Atique Ahmed to contest from Varanasi against PM Modi

Former MP Atique Ahmed, who has been jail since February 11, 2017, will contest from Varanasi on the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, sources said. Ahmed, who is currently lodged in a jail at Naini in UP, on Saturday filed an application, urging the jail superintendent to release him to contest the polls.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court directed shifting Ahmed to a high security jail in Gujarat for kidnapping and assaulting a businessman in prison in Uttar Pradesh. Taking a strong note of the incident, which took place in Deoria jail, the top court ordered a CBI probe into the case.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna ordered suspension of five jail officials against whom the Uttar Pradesh government has initiated departmental proceedings for their prima facie involvement in the case.

The bench asked the state government to give the status report of 80 cases registered against Ahmed, besides the 26 pending in different courts.

Businessman Mohit Jaiswal had filed an FIR on December 28, 2018, alleging that he was kidnapped from Lucknow and taken to the prison where he was assaulted by the jailed don and his aides and was forced to transfer his business to them.

On April 11, the Uttar Pradesh government had told the apex court that Ahmad, who was lodged in Deoria jail, had indeed kidnapped and assaulted Jaiswal on December 26 last year. Confirming the incident, the UP government had said CCTV cameras in the jail complex were tampered with at the time of the incident.

In a report submitted through Hansaria, the state government said departmental action against five jail officials has been initiated. Hansaria had in his earlier report submitted that there were 109 cases registered against Ahmad from 1979 to 2019 which include 17 murder cases, 12 cases under UP Gangster Act, eight under Arms Act and four under UP Goonda Act.

He had said eight cases pending investigation were registered against Ahmed between 2015 and 2019 of which two are murder cases.

Ahmed was a five-time MLA and one-time MP. In the past he was associated with political parties including Samajwadi Party and Apna Dal (Sonewal faction).