Kidnapping case: CBI grills Ateeq Ahmed in Sabarmati jail

In a bid to unravel a nexus between the gangsters and jail authorities, a team of Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday questioned don-turned-politician Ateeq Ahmed in Sabarmati jail in its probe into the alleged kidnapping and assault of a Lucknow-based businessman.

A team of senior CBI officers questioned the former Samajwadi Party MP in the jail premises in Ahmedabad for his role in the kidnapping and assault involving Lucknow-based businessman Mohit Jaiswal.

The agency official said without the connivance of the jail authorities, no insider would have entered the jail premises.

The official said Ateeq Ahmed was questioned as to how he managed to bring the businessman inside the jail premises and who from the jail authorities helped him.

This is not the first time that the nexus between the gangsters and jail authorities have come to the fore in Uttar Pradesh.

Jaiswal, a real estate dealer, was kidnapped on December 26 last year from Lucknow and taken to the Deoria prison where he was assaulted by jailed Ahmed and his aides and was forced to transfer his business to them.

Ahmed was then jailed in Deoria prison at the time of the incident. He was later transferred to the Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad in June this year.

The CBI has registered the case on the Supreme Court order of April 23, 2019 and named Ahmed, his son Umar Ahmed and 15 others in the case. The CBI has charged them with kidnapping, extortion, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and robbery.

The agency has also arrested several other accused in the case, including a close relative of Ahmed, Zaki Ahmed.

Ahmed was a Samajwadi Party MP in the 14th Lok Sabha representing Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh from 2004 to 2009. He was a five-time MLA and has been in jail since February 11, 2017.

In the past, Ahmed was associated with political parties including Samajwadi Party and Apna Dal(Sonewal faction).

( With inputs from IANS )