‘Atiq Ahmed abducted, hit bizman in prison’

NEW DELHI: The UP government on Thursday admitted before the Supreme Court that dreaded mafia don and ex-Samajwadi Party MP Atiq Ahmed had engineered the abduction of businessman

Mohit Jaiswal

in December last year and got him assaulted in his cell inside Deoria jail.


The audacious abduction and assault of a businessman inside a prison cell where the don was lodged had created ripples after it was reported in TOI and other newspapers and the SC had taken cognisance of the TOI story and sought a report from the UP government.

Admitting to the incident inside Deoria jail, the state government said Ahmed was shifted to

Bareilly district

jail after the assault as an inquiry found the jail superintendent and other officials complicit in allowing the don’s goons to take the businessman inside the prison cell. Ahmed is facing 109 cases of which 17 are for murder, 12 under UP Gangsters Act, eight under Arms Act and four under UP Goondas Act.

The inquiry report said Ahmed and his gang had been pressurising Jaiswal to part with money and his refusal had led to his abduction and assault before the jailed don.


CCTV cams inside jail tampered
“During interrogation, jail staff and prisoners denied the assault but a joint team after inquiry found that some CCTV cameras inside the jail premises were tampered with and persons meeting with Ateeq Ahmed had been granted relaxation in violation of rules,” the report said.

Amicus curiae

Vijay Hansaria and advocate Sneha Kalita informed a bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi that according to the Allahabad HC report, several cases were pending against Ahmed for a long time without charges being framed by trial courts. Ahmed was in jail only since February 11, 2017, even though a murder case was pending against him since 1979, Hansaria said. Ahmed was an MLA from 1989 to 2004 and a Samajwadi Party MP from 2004 to 2009.

The inquiry report said disciplinary action was initiated against two guards and a deputy jailor of Deoria jail for allowing unauthorised entry of Ahmed’s goons along with the kidnapped businessman to the prison cell.