Gangster Atiq Ahmed's convoy enters Uttar Pradesh amid tight security
The gangster is being taken to Prayagraj from Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad by the Uttar Pradesh police for a court case.
FollowThe Uttar Pradesh Police convoy, which is escorting mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed to Prayagraj from Sabarmati Jail, has reached Jhansi Police Lines. The convoy has been taking halts along the way. Â Â
The convoy halted briefly in Shivpuri district (more than 300 km from Bhopal) at around 8 am before reaching Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.
The gangster is being taken to Prayagraj from Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad by the Uttar Pradesh police for a court case. On Sunday, a team of Uttar Pradesh police reached the Sabarmati jail and left the premises with Ahmed amid tight security at around 6 pm after completing the necessary formalities, officials had said.Â
Ahmed, a former Samajwadi Party MP, has been lodged in the Sabarmati central jail since June 2019. He was shifted there following a Supreme Court after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault on a real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in prison in UP.
He is named in more than 100 criminal cases, including the recent Umesh Pal murder case, police said. After stepping out of Sabarmati central jail, Ahmed on Sunday expressed fear that he might be murdered.
"Hatya, hatya (murder, murder)," Ahmed had told media persons outside the prison while being whisked away in a police vehicle by security personnelÂ
BJP Lok Sabha MP Subrat Pathak had said he would not be surprised if mafia Atiq Ahmed's vehicle overturned like that of gangster Vikas Dubey. Dubey was gunned down in July 2020 by the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh police shortly after a police SUV in which he was being brought to Kanpur from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh overturned under mysterious circumstances on a highway. Police claimed that he had tried to flee.Â
High security in jail
Meanwhile, a high-security barrack of Prayagraj's Naini Central Jail has been made ready for Ahmed. It is believed that Ahmed will be kept alone in this barrack, which has a capacity of 30 prisoners. Outside this barrack, only those captive guards will be deployed who are equipped with body-worn cameras.Â
According to officials, he will be kept in an isolation cell in the high-security barrack. The cell is equipped with CCTV cameras where he will be under police surveillance for 24 hours. All his footage and live recordings from jail will be available to the Lucknow headquarter, making monitoring easier. Special police personnel have been selected to avoid lapse in the jail.
