The recent gunning down of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in police custody by three assailants, and the resulting myriad reactions of various sections of society have highlighted the multiple fault lines running through the Indian public life.
The sordid murder script, which played live on Indian TV channels, was the culmination of an over four-decade-long crime-infested life. It encapsulated the distorted nature of Indian political discourse, the failure of its justice dispensation system, the collapse of Uttar Pradesh’s law and order, and the imperfections of India’s electoral process.
Atiq’s life and death are archetypal to India’s dysfunctional criminal justice system. The law couldn’t punish or protect him. Ironically, he lived by crime and was killed by criminals while in police custody. Law had no relevance in his life or death, though he had the moniker of a lawmaker.
Born on August 10, 1962, to Haji Feroz Ahmed, a tonga walla, Atiq entered the world of crime, at 17, in 1979, when he stabbed a local rival Mohammed Gulam in full public view, and the first murder case against him was registered. Till 2004, he had accumulated 159 criminal charges in 36 separate cases, according to the affidavit he submitted along with his nomination for Parliamentary elections. But he was convicted for the first time only earlier this year—43 years after his crimes blazed a trail.
For decades, Atiq continued his killing spree, extortion business, kidnappings and land grabbing unchecked, while the spineless system allowed itself to be co-opted by him. His wealth is estimated at over ₹11,000 crore. While browbeating the police and political system, he also managed the revenue authorities through his favourite tools of intimidation and inducements. No serious questions were ever asked about his expanding financial empire till recently.
The upswing in Atiq’s crime graph and growing financial clout were matched by his burgeoning stature in politics. In 1989, Atiq won his first election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly from Allahabad West as an independent. He repeated the feat from the same constituency in 1991 and 1993.
Ignoring his criminal antecedents, political parties vied with each other to win him over to their side because the electorate seemed to endorse Atiq’s brand of politics. His muscle power, gangster image, criminal exploits, traction within the Muslim community with communal undertones, and expanding “business empire” were seen not as liabilities but valuable political assets—bringing to the fore the dark underbelly of the Indian electoral system.
Atiq won in 1996 on the Samajwadi party ticket and in 2002 on the Apna Dal ticket to the state Assembly. In 2003, he rejoined SP and got elected to Lok Sabha from Phulpur—a constituency that sent Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Parliament in 1952, 1957 and 1962.
Following his election to the Lok Sabha, Atiq vacated the Allahabad West Assembly seat and fielded his brother Ashraf (also his crime partner) in the ensuing bypoll. Ashraf lost to BSP’s Raju Pal. The defeat was too much of an insult for the Ahmed brothers to stomach. Three months later, on January 25, 2005, Raju Pal was shot dead publicly by eight assassins, including Ashraf, who was later arrested.
It became difficult for the Ahmed brothers and an acquiescing administration to bury the case because the prime witness, Umesh Pal, refused to retract his statement. He was abducted at gunpoint on February 28, 2006, and was threatened to keep quiet. In June 2007, after BSP replaced SP in Lucknow, an emboldened Umesh Pal lodged an FIR against Atiq and others. On March 28, 2023—17 years after the dastardly crime—a UP court sentenced Atiq to life imprisonment in the kidnapping and torturing case. This was Atiq’s first conviction ever.
Don’t miss the irony. The UP police, which failed to protect Atiq and Ashraf while they were in its custody, couldn’t save Umesh, who was under its protection. On February 24, 2023—32 days before Atiq’s first-ever conviction, Umesh was shot dead, along with his police bodyguards, outside his house by a slew of gunmen that included Atiq’s youngest son Asad, who was subsequently killed in a police encounter. The UP police failed to save either the don duo or their victim.
The dastardly murder of Atiq-Ashraf in police custody can’t be seen in isolation. It is part of an ongoing evisceration of the system that started long back. When Atiq launched himself as a criminal in his teens, the system didn’t react. Gradually he was co-opted by a complicit state. He quickly outgrew the system, and eventually, he became the system.
The worst the law could do to Atiq was to put him behind bars. In his case, it was no punishment. Jail was just another working station for him. He ran his crime empire from the safe confines of prison, ordering murders and issuing extortion threats. The footprint of his terror machine was vast, extending from media to politics to the judiciary. In one case, as many as 10 judges refused to hear his bail application. The eleventh judge, who finally did, released Atiq on bail.
Atiq was beyond law and any punishment the state could inflict on him. In a given context, he was the law. The rule of law implies the state has the capacity to enforce the law evenly, and it alone has the power to punish. A heavily compromised and emasculated State had long surrendered these privileges to the dreaded don.
The way Atiq lived and how he and his brother met a fiery end underline the collapse of India’s institutional framework. Some of the outrage following the double murder is understandable. Most of it, however, is motivated by political considerations, a ploy to polarise Muslim votes rather than any genuine concern for the rule of law. This exposes yet another fault line—why an entire community of over 200 million is sought to be identified with a mafia don by those who claim to be pursuing a ‘secular’ brand of polity? In both life and death, Atiq has left behind a smouldering slew of issues that India can no longer afford to sweep under the carpet.
(Views are personal)
Balbir Punj
Former Member of Parliament and a columnist