Despite the introduction of the e-tendering regime, baahubalis continue to focus on getting government contracts, particularly railway and PWD tenders.
In 2020-21, e-tenders for contracts worth over Rs 17 lakh crore were issued in the country, of which Rs 3.83 lakh crore—22 per cent—pertained to UP alone.
“Not just government contracts (particularly railway scrap), the baahubalis have also been raking in the moolah through sand and stone mining, liquor trade and coal smuggling. Several high-profile kidnappings of coal businessmen on failure to pay extortion money took place in the 1990s,” says Varanasi-based journalist Pawan Singh, who has been covering the gang wars for over two decades.
In new India, baahubalis have found newer sources of making money: installation of cellular phone towers, maintenance for big players in the telecom industry and real estate. The gangs that once extorted protection money from builders have now become investors. A retired police officer, who was once part of the UP STF, says business and politics have prompted many gangs to strike common cause.
“A mafia from Kanpur was the key link between the two gangs led by Muslim men, including Atiq’s gang in Prayagraj and Mukhtar’s in the Ghazipur-Varanasi-Mau region. The two struck common cause in railway scrap contracts, coal and real estate. Their political clout, particularly during the era of coalition politics and majority governments between 2007 and 2017 in the state, cemented their ties,” says a retired UP police officer, who was once part of the UP STF.
The bonding has been not only existent between Mukhtar, Atiq and gangs operated by ex-MLA from Gyanpur (Bhadohi) Vijay Mishra, but also rival gangs, like Brijesh Singh, Vinit Singh, Subhash Thakur-Bhai Thakur and Dhananjay Singh, he adds. A serving UP cadre IPS officer, who has also been with the STF and ATS, says baahubalis from both East and West UP have their network in Bihar and Jharkhand, and in Gujarat, Maharashtra Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand.
MK Dhar, the former Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau, in his book Open Secrets: India’s Intelligence Unveiled, without naming, indicates how elements like Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari and Shahabuddin were ISI pawns who were provided with funds and arms to create a crescent-like belt stretching from Indo-Nepal border in UP, passing through Deoria, Prayagraj, Eastern UP and touching the Indo-Nepal border in North Bihar.