'I'm reduced to dust, spare my family', pleads Ateeq Ahmed from inside police van

"I am totally reduced to dust, but please don't trouble the women and children of my family now," gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad told reporters from inside a police van on Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's "mafiaaon ko mitti me mila denge" warning probably playing on his mind.

The 60-year-old former Samajwadi Party MLA, who faces more than 100 cases in Uttar Pradesh, was taken from the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad to a prison in Prayagraj, more than 1000 kms away, by road in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case.

The police convoy taking Ahmad to Prayagraj left the Sabarmati Jail on Tuesday evening and entered into the Uttar Pradesh border from Jhansi at around 8.45 am. The convoy reached the Naini Central Jail in Prayagraj around 6 pm.

While he was on the way, he spoke to the mediapersons from inside the police van. He pleaded the government to spare his family members, who are co-accused in several cases.

"Hum aapke jariye government se kehna chahte hain, bulkul mitti me mil gaye hain ab hamari auraoton aur bachchon ko pareshan na karein. (I want to tell the government through you (the media) that I am totally reduced to dust, but please don't trouble the women and children of my family now," Ahmad told a news channel from inside his police van between Jhansi and Prayagraj.

He will be produced before a court in Prayagraj on Thursday in the Umesh Pal murder case.

After Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder of former BSP MLA Raju Pal in which Ahmad is an accused, was shot dead outside his residence in Prayagraj on February 24 this year Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said "mafiaaon ko mitti me mila denge (will reduce the mafia to dust)".

"Mafiagiri toh pahle hi samapth ho gyi, ab toh ragada ja raha hai. Mafia-giri has already ended, now I am being hounded," Ahmad said, when asked about his criminal acts.

Ahmad last month moved the Supreme Court for protection, claiming he and his family have been falsely implicated as accused in the Umesh Pal murder case in Prayagraj and he may be killed in a fake encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Asked about his son Asad, who is also wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, Ahmad said, "How would I know, I am in jail." Earlier, when his convoy was in Madhya Pradesh, Ahmad claimed he was being harassed in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat.

"My family is ruined. I am safe because of you," he told the member of the press.

"I have not telephoned anyone from there (inside the jail) as jammers were installed there. I have not hatched any conspiracy and am behind bars for the last six years," he said.

After Umesh Pal and his two police security guards were killed, his wife Jaya Pal filed a complaint against Ahmad, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had on March 26 also taken Ahmad from the Sabarmati jail to Prayagraj to produce him in a court. On March 28, the court there had sentenced Ahmad and two others to life imprisonment in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case.

Ahmad was brought back to the high-security jail in Gujarat in a UP police van on March 29, after a nearly 24-hour-long road journey from Prayagraj.

In 2006, Atiq Ahmad and his aides abducted Umesh Pal and forced him to give a statement in court in their favour. Umesh Pal had registered a complaint in this regard.

The Supreme Court had in April 2019 directed that Ahmad be shifted to a high-security jail in Gujarat after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault of a real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in jail.