ROUGH JUSTICE

The crux of Atique Ahmed's downfall lies in his siphoning, channelling and filtering of ill-gotten wealth

- PUJA AWASTHI

In his own eyes, Atique Ahmed was a do-gooder. Thus, in December 2016, after he entered the campus of the Allahabad-based Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences and beat up staff members, he issued a video message declaring that he was just helping a hapless mother whose son had been suspended from college.

On the now-deceased Ahmed’s social media page, it is abundantly clear how closely he identified with this imagined image of a humanitarian. His banner photo has a quote that reads: ‘Kisi mazloom par zulm hote dekh khamosh reh jaana, mere qareeb bagawat hai farman-e-Ilahi se’ (loosely: to stay silent when a poor person is being oppressed is against the will of God).

In Allahabad (now Prayagraj), people that this correspondent spoke to vouched for the 60-year-old criminal-politician’s willingness to solve disputes and resolve tensions. But it all came at a price. “One day you would receive a call to pick up a car from a showroom or to give so many lakhs of rupees to someone. There was no way you could say no,” said one businessman.

Ahmed’s money came from multiple sources, the mainstay of which was property. He would buy land from farmers, plot it and then sell it to builders. The standard modus operandi was to make a verbal commitment and then make the payment when the actual registry was done— giving the land owner a pre-agreed price and pocketing the rest. One of Prayagraj’s biggest clothing showrooms, a hotel and a mall were also among establishments where he had parked his money.