Atiq Ahmed, a gangster-turned-politician, and his son Umar have been denied a clean chit in an extortion case by a CBI court in Lucknow. The court presided over by Special CBI Judge Ajay Vikram Singh, rejected their plea and summoned Ahmed, Umar, and the other accused to appear on April 7 for framing charges.
The case stems from the 2018 abduction of businessman Mohit Jaiswal in Lucknow. Jaiswal was taken to the Deoria district jail where he was allegedly beaten in the presence of Ahmed and forced to resign from his four companies, which were then taken over by Ahmed’s associates Zaki Ahmed and Mohammad Farukh. Jaiswal filed a complaint with the police and an investigation was launched.
The CBI took over the case and filed a chargesheet against Ahmed, Umar, and several others in October 2019. The charge sheet accused them of abduction, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, and other offenses under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Ahmed and Umar had moved the court seeking a clean chit, claiming that they were innocent and falsely implicated in the case. However, the court rejected their plea and ordered them to appear for framing charges.
This is not the first time that Ahmed has been in trouble with the law. He has been named in several criminal cases, including murder, extortion, and kidnapping. Ahmed was a member of the Samajwadi Party and was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Phulpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh in 2004. However, he was expelled from the party in 2017 after he was accused of criminal activities.