‘Hum Toh Mitti Mein Mil Gaye’ — so said Atiq Ahmed after the death of his son Asad Ahmed in a police encounter on Thursday. And now, the gangster-turned-politician and his brother Ashraf have been shot dead. In the last 50 days, the Yogi Adityanath-led government also struck financial blows to finish off his gang.
UP government officials said property and assets worth Rs 1,400 crore of Atiq and his henchmen have been confiscated, and the police had determined these assets were acquired through crime. The Enforcement Directorate has also dealt a severe blow by exposing assets worth over Rs 100 crore and discovering nearly 50 shell companies that Atiq and his gang used to convert their black money earned from extortion into white money.
He and his brother are dead, his two elder sons are also in jail, his third son Asad is dead and his two minor sons are in a juvenile home while his wife Shaista Parveen is absconding.
Sample this: Besides confiscating Atiq and his gang’s property worth Rs 1,400 crore, 15 teams of the Enforcement Directorate have also expedited their money laundering probe against Atiq and exposed assets worth another Rs 108 crore. The documents recovered during the ED’s raids on Atiq have revealed more than 50 shell companies which are dummy companies owned by someone else in the documents, but they were invested in by Atiq and his gang. All these companies were involved in the black money business network and the ED dragnet has fallen on a lawyer, Atiq’s accountant, a real-estate businessman, a former BSP MLA, a builder and a car showroom owner who have been central to running Atiq’s ‘business’.
ED has summoned all these close aides of Atiq for questioning.
Before 2017, Atiq had always managed to get bail and be a free man despite over 100 criminal cases pending against him. The first case, in fact, was lodged way back in 1979 but no government in UP could get him convicted in any case as either witnesses turned hostile or disappeared.
The Yogi government ensured strong prosecution in the case of the abduction of key witness Umesh Pal that led to a first-ever conviction for Atiq, who was handed life term.
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