क्राइम

On Atiq Ahmad murder, Mahesh Jethmalani says, ‘Like Dawood-NCP, secular parties…’

BJP Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Mahesh Jehthmalani said 'so-called' secular parties nurture, use and protect mafia dons like the nexus of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Dawood empire in Maharashtra which was dismantled by the BJP-Sena government from 2015. The murder of Prayagraj's and his brother Ashraf could be perpetrated by any of Atiq's victims or enemies, the Rajya Sabha MP said, adding that there is no religious angle to it. 'Biggest Hindu Don Chota Rajan was also defanged by the Fadnavis led govt of 2015..." Jethmalani said.

Atiq Ahmad (right) and his brother Ashraf were shot dead on April 15.

"Mafia dons like Atique Ahmad only flourish in spite of continuous criminal activity because they provide money and muscle power to political parties who in turn provide them protection and patronage," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf both accused in Umesh Pal murder case were shot dead on April 15 when they were being taken for medical examination. On April 13, Atiq Ahmad's son Asad, another accused in the same case, was killed in a police encounter.

As the encounter followed by the surprising shootout in police custody raised several questions, Jethmalani said Atiq was a Samajwadi Party member from 2004 to 2018. When the Samajwadi Party came to power, he was released on bail in 2012.

"It was only when the Yogi govt came to power that he was arrested again and convicted finally in 2019 for the 2006 kidnapping of Unmesh Pal. It was also the Yogi govt that nullified his financial clout by attaching ₹11000 crores worth of his ill gotten assets. Stripped of his wealth he had the audacity to extort monies from a host of industrialists/real estate developers & plot the killing of lawyer Umesh Pal, key eye witness against him in the 2006 murder of Raju Pal which misadventure cost his son his life in a police encounter," Jethmalani said.

"Lest the secular parties are aggrieved by this eradication of Muslim Mafia gangs, they can take heart from the fact that the biggest Hindu Don - Chota Rajan- was also defanged by the Fadnavis led govt of 2015 which arrested him from Bali in that year and had him tried and convicted in 2017 in the case of the murder of journalist J. Dey," Jethmalani added.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, at the party's Iftar gathering in Mumbai on Tuesday, said the country will go down the wrong path if the ruling forces inculcate the habit of ignoring the Constitution and law. "A country runs as per the Constitution and law. If ruling forces inculcate the habit of taking steps by ignoring the Constitution and law, we will go down the wrong path...If taking steps by forgetting law and Constitution and by taking law into hands is spoken of and if attempts are made to create such an atmosphere, it is not right for the nation...," Pawar said without naming Atiq or his son.