'Kahe ka dar' asks gangster Atiq Ahmed as his convoy halts in MP's Shivpuri district before entering
Bhopal/Shivpuri (PTI): The convoy of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed being escorted by the Uttar Pradesh police halted briefly in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh on early Monday morning before entering Jhansi on its way to Prayagraj, a police official said.
As the convoy halted briefly at Kharai in Shivpuri district and Ahmed, wearing a white turban, got down from the police van to attend nature's call, reporters asked him whether he was "afraid", to which he replied by saying "kahe ka dar" (what fear) before police personnel whisked him away.
Notably, after stepping out of Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad on Sunday evening, Ahmed expressed fear that he might be murdered.
"Hatya, hatya (murder, murder)," Ahmed had told reporters outside the prison while being whisked away in a police vehicle by security personnel.
Earlier, the carcade, which started from Ahmedabad on Sunday evening, entered Madhya Pradesh from the Rajasthan border in the morning, a police official said.
"It halted briefly at Kharai in Shivpuri district at around 7 AM to enable Ahmed to attend nature's call," said local police officer Manish Kumar Jadoun.
Another police official said Ahmed's convoy left Shivpuri district after a brief halt and entered Jhansi district of UP at around 9 AM.
The gangster is being taken to Prayagraj from Sabarmati central jail by the Uttar Pradesh police for a court case.
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 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 had said.
BJP Lok Sabha MP Subrat Pathak had said he would not be surprised if mafia Atiq Ahmed's vehicle overturns 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.
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Congress standing with CM Siddaramaiah, will support him, says party President Kharge
Bengaluru (PTI): Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the party is standing with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and will support him as he faces a probe by Lokayukta police in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.
Rejecting BJP's demand for Siddaramaiah's resignation, he noted that "neither a chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted," and said, "let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine."
"When the Godhra incident happened, whether (Narendra) Modi ji had resigned (as the then Gujarat CM)? Several cases were also pending against him at that time, even against Mr Shah (Union Home Minister Amit Shah)," Kharge said in response to a question on BJP questioning CM's moral right to continue, with FIR slated to be registered against him.
Speaking to reporters here, he said: "Don't target a particular person to damage his image, through him the party will also be damaged. Your (BJP) interest is to damage the Congress party, not the individual. He may be here today or may not be, the party will continue. Just to destroy the Congress party and the Congress party's base votes, they want to destroy, that is why they are doing this."
Let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine it at that time, he further said. "Now nothing is there, (but) every day I'm seeing that MUDA, MUDA. Crores of rupees (have been) swallowed by industrialists, Rs 16 lakh crore of their debt have been written off, and now you are taking one small issue and fighting. That too neither chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted. Every day this is news. I'm fed up seeing all these things."
Asked whether the Congress high command will stand with the Chief Minister, even after the registering of FIR, Kharge said: "that is a hypothetical question. We are standing with him, we will support him, because he represents the party, not (an) individual."
A Special Court here on Wednesday ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah in the case, setting the stage for filing of an FIR against him.
The order of the Special Court Judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after the High Court upheld the sanction granted by the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on the allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife B M Parvathi by MUDA.
The Special Court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to former and elected MPs/MLAs issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation on the complaint filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna.
In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.
Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
It is alleged that Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village, Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk.
