The Uttar Pradesh government has taken over property valued at approximately ₹50 crore in Prayagraj that belonged to slain gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed. The property is alleged to have been purchased with proceeds from criminal activities.
According to District Government Advocate Gulab Chandra Agrahari, Atiq obtained 2.377 hectares of land using cash from illegal operations and registered it in the name of a mason, Hoobalal. Atiq had also stated that he would transfer the land under his own name if necessary. In November 2023, the police seized this land.
Agrahari noted that the Police Commissioner Court seized the property under Section 14(1) of the Gangsters Act, allowing three months for a response, but no proof of ownership was provided. The Police Commissioner Court subsequently forwarded the case to the Gangster Court in Prayagraj. On Tuesday, Judge Vinod Kumar Chaurasia deemed the police commissioner’s actions “fair and just,” leading to the official transfer of the property to the state government.
DCP Deepak Bhuker, “For the first time, the gangster court in Prayagraj has ordered the vesting of the benami property of slain gangster Atiq Ahmed in Kathula Gauspur village to the state government on July 15. The Prayagraj police had attached Atiq’s benami property worth crores of rupees in Kathula Gauspur village in Sadar tehsil under the Gangsters Act on November 6, 2023.”
Atiq and his brother Ashraf, implicated in over 100 criminal cases, including the Umesh Pal murder case, were shot dead on April 15 of last year.