Atiq Ahmed

Atiq Ahmed (10 August 1962 – 15 April 2023) was an Indian gangster and politician.

He served as a member of the Indian Parliament and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Samajwadi Party.

Ahmed had more than 160 criminal cases registered against him and competed in several elections from jail.

As of March 2023, the Uttar Pradesh Police had seized properties worth inr 116840000000 belonging to Ahmed and his family.

Atiq Ahmed was born in 1962 to a poor family.

His father was a horse-cart driver in Prayagraj.

Ahmed was married to Shaista Parveen.

His first criminal record was in 1979, when he was accused of murder in Allahabad.

He also became the first person to be booked under the Goonda Act in Uttar Pradesh.

Ahmed entered politics in 1989 when he won a MLA seat in Allahabad West as an independent candidate.

In his early days, Ahmed worked closely with other notorious members of the mafia in Allahabad namely Chand Baba. After the encounter of his biggest competitor Shaukat Ilahi in 1990, Ahmed became very powerful and became known for extortion, kidnapping, and murder.

He retained his seat in the 1991 and 1993 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, and then won the seat in 1996 as a Samajwadi Party (SP) member.

The couple had five sons Umar(1998), Ali(2002), Asad(2003-2023), Ahzam(2005) and Abaan(2008).

Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf was also an ex-MLA from the Samajwadi Party.

In 1999, he left the SP and became the president of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), winning the Allahabad West seat in 2002.

He rejoined the SP in 2003.

In 2004, Ahmed was elected as the Lok Sabha Member of Parliament for Phulpur, after which he resigned from his MLA seat in Allahabad.

In 2004, Ahmed vacated the Allahabad West MLA seat in order to serve as an MP from Phulpur as a member of SP.

In his place, his younger brother Khalid Azim contested the by-elections and lost to a BSP candidate, Raju Pal.

In 2005, Raju Pal was shot dead and Khalid Azim was able to win the next by-elections and obtain the MLA seat.

Ahmed was named and arrested as the main accused in this case but later received bail. Ahmed was able to hold his power in the underworld even from inside the prison.

After Mayawati gained power as the Chief Minister in the state, she mounted pressure against him.

In 2007, he was expelled from SP after he provided protection to men with allegations of rape in a Madrasa and the massive outcry caused by the event.

However, the Samajwadi Party expelled him in the year 2008 and Mayawati refused him a ticket under BSP.

Later, he contested elections as a candidate for the Apna Dal party in Pratapgarh, only to lose the election.

He surrendered and was arrested in 2008.

In the 2009 Indian general elections, Atiq Ahmed was allowed to run for election, since he was yet to be convicted in any criminal case.

Ahmed contested the 2012 Uttar Pradesh elections under the Apna Dal banner for the Allahabad (West) constituency.

He filed his nomination from jail.

He appealed for bail in the Allahabad High Court, but ten judges recused themselves from hearing his case.

The Economic Times and The Times of India reported that the judges' refusals were due to Ahmed's "terror".

The eleventh judge released him on bail before the elections, but the election was won by Raju Pal's widow, Puja Pal.

In 2014, he was taken back into the Samajwadi Party and fought the national elections for the Shrawasti constituency.

He secured a quarter of the votes but lost by more than 85,000 votes to Daddan Mishra of the BJP.

In 2019, he was convicted of kidnapping a witness who testified against him regarding the 2005 murder of his political rival Raju Pal.

Ahmed remained in jail until his assassination by three gunmen on his way to a court-mandated medical checkup on 15 April 2023.

In 2019, Ahmed contested against Narendra Modi from Varanasi constituency as an independent candidate and secured 833 votes.

Ahmed has been elected as 5 times MLA and 1 time Lok Sabha MP.

Ahmed entered the world of crime by stealing coal from trains and selling it for profit.

This later transformed into threatening contractors for obtaining government tenders for railway scrap metal.