Uttar Pradesh Law and Order: How Yogi Govt destroyed the institutionalisation of Mafias in State politics

In 2017, Yogi Adityanath inherited Uttar Pradesh, where Mafia Raj, meaning the fiefdom of goons, was institutionalised in the social, business and political fabric of Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh, his father Mulayam and Mayawati nurtured these mafias for their political goals. The goons who should have been behind bars were walking in the Assembly and the Parliament on the tickets of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The lawbreakers were promoted to become lawmakers by these two parties.

During the SP and BSP Governments, law and order in Uttar Pradesh were marred by these three characteristics – (1) An insufficient police force – only 1.5 lakhs positions of the sanctioned 3 lakhs police positions in the State – were filled by SP and BSP Governments (2) Bahubali-karan of Politics – the likes of Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed, Azam Khan, Vikas Dubey and Gayatri Prajapati were moving in the corridors of power instead of jails (3) Culture of turning a blind eye to criminals, guided by Mulayam Singh Yadav’s philosophy – Ladke Hain, Galti Ho Jati Hai (Boys will be Boys).

How Samajwadi Party Nurtured Atiq Ahmed

In the 1990s, SP and BSP were on a talent hunt for mafias to be leaders in their parties. SP saw a potential big leader in Atiq Ahmed and tested him with a task to attack BSP leader Mayawati in the in-famous guest house incident in 1995. Though BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi saved Mayawati and foiled Atiq Ahmed’s plan to eliminate her, Samajwadi Party rewarded Atiq with an Assembly ticket from their party in 1996 from the Allahabad West. Samajwadi Party and Atiq’s kinship grew thick from then and in 2004, Samajwadi Party sent this mafia to the temple of democracy, the Parliament of India, from the Phulpur seat. This is the same Phulpur, from where ex-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reached the Parliament.

Mulayam’s Patronage

Under Mulayam Singh Yadav’s protection as the Chief Minister of UP, Atiq enjoyed complete impunity. So much so that in 2005, when his brother Ashraf lost against BSP’s Raju Pal in a by-poll on the Allahabad West seat, Atiq Ahmed got him shot dead in broad daylight by sending more than two dozen gunmen. Ahmed was named and arrested as the main accused in this case, but Mulayam’s police put up a weak case and got him out on bail.

Beneficial for Atiq’s Political Masters

In 2012, Akhilesh became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and soon started to control the party. Akhilesh continued Samajwadi party’s love for mafias and gave Lok Sabha ticket to Atiq again in 2014 from the Shrawasti seat. Thanks to the Modi wave and the people of Uttar Pradesh, Atiq lost the elections. In his four-decades criminal career, Atiq wore more than 100 cases against him as a badge of honour – cases of murder, attempt to murder, rioting, land grabbing and kidnapping. His fear was so widespread that in none of these serious cases, he was sentenced over these forty years, as many judges recused themselves from his cases and witnesses either turned hostile or were eliminated. It was only in 2023, under the Yogi Adityanath Government that the UP Police was able to produce evidence and witnesses. That is why the Court sentenced him for Life Imprisonment for one of the many cases against him. It’s unfortunate that due to a procedural lapse by the UP Police, he got shot in police custody recently and many of the criminal secrets of his political masters got buried with him. There is no prize for guessing that who would benefit from his death and who was uncomfortable with him revealing his criminal history to the UP Police.

Today under the Yogi Government, Atiq’s illegal properties worth hundreds of crores are seized and bulldozed and his wide network of gangsters are busted and dusted. From Mulayam’s blanket impunity to criminals as in Ladke Hain Galti Ho Jati Hai to Yogi’s hard stand on the criminals as in Mafia Ko Mitti Mein Mila Dunga, UP has seen a 180 degree shift to its culture of political patronage to hardened criminals.

How Samajwadi Party Stood Strong with Terrorists and Criminals

Like a loyal colleague, UP’s ex-Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav is very uncomfortable with the crackdown on Atiq’s illegal empire. Akhilesh tweeted that by the encounter of Atiq’s son Asad, wanted in Umesh Pal’s murder case, Yogi Government is spoiling the harmony (bhai-chara) in the community. His uncle Ram Gopal Yadav gave a strong cover fire to Atiq, and almost declared him innocent, saying that that it’s just the media trial that painted Atiq as a gangster.

This is not the first time that Akhilesh Yadav and his party brazenly defended criminals for their minority vote bank. In its 2012 election manifesto along with anti-constitutional religion-based reservation for Muslims, Samajwadi Party promised that Muslim youth, jailed on charges of terror acts, would be released and given adequate compensation. And once Akhilesh Yadav became the Chief Minister of the State, he forgot most of his poll promises but remembered all the promises made to his Muslim voters. He tried to release some of the most dreaded terrorists from the jails of UP. Fortunately, Courts came heavily on the Akhilesh Yadav Government. The court said, “Who will decide who is a terrorist and who is not? Let the matter be decided in the court”, observed the HC. “How can the Government decide who is a terrorist? Is the Government encouraging terrorism by taking steps to withdraw cases against accused persons? Today you are withdrawing cases…tomorrow you will confer Padma Bhushan on them”.

The bench of Justice RK Agrawal and Justice RSR Maurya gave this observation, while hearing a petition challenging the move of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government to let off those Muslim youths who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the Varanasi serial blasts of March 7, 2006.

The terror accused Waliullah, Tariq Kazmi and others, who Akhilesh Government wanted to free, later got life sentences for their role in the serial bomb. In 2013, one of the co-accused Khalid Mujahid died of a summer stroke, while being escorted to Lucknow Jail after a hearing in the Faizabad Court. The accused fell sick in the police vehicle and fainted near Barabanki border and was rushed to the district hospital where doctors declared him dead. To everybody’s shock, Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh, out of its love for terror suspects, had sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of Khalid in police custody. Forty-two STF policemen, including former Director General of Police Vikram Singh and Director General of Police, Training, Brij Lal, were booked in the conspiracy to kill Khalid Mujahid.

These FIRs were quashed later on the court orders as they were found baseless. Akhilesh has surely learnt the idea of supporting a terrorist to appease Muslims from his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, who supported the banned terror outfit Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) along with Lalu Prasad Yadav in 2008.

How BSP and SP gave prominence to Mukhtar Ansari

In 1996, Samajwadi Party adopted Atiq Ahmed and gave him the Assembly ticket, Bahujan Samaj Party adopted another dreaded gangster from the east – Mukhtar Ansari and gave him Assembly seat from the Mau seat and nurtured him. Over years, Mukhtar became close to both BSP and SP. In 2005, after the murder of Raju Pal in Prayag, Atiq had become the unchallenged number one mafia of Uttar Pradesh. Mukhtar wanted to have a bigger name than Atiq. Later in the same year Mukhtar, while still in the jail, got BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai murdered in broad day light, through his team of gangsters in a similar gruesome fashion as Atiq executed MLA Raju Pal. The reason for Mukhtar’s rivalry with Krishnanand Rai was that he defeated Mukhtar’s brother Afsal Ansari in the 2002 Assembly from the Mohammadabad seat. It was not surprising as these gangsters’ captured booths, scared people and killed their opponents to win elections over years.

Even today BSP and SP are keeping Mukhtar’s family in good humour. Mukhtar brother Afsal Ansari is a current MP from BSP in the 17th Lok Sabha from the Gazipur seat and Mukhtar’s son Abbas Ansari got the ticket from one of SP’s collation partners in the 2022 Assembly elections. In the running of UP Assembly elections in 2022, Akhilesh Yadav inducted Sigbatullah Ansari, brother of Mukhtar Ansari into Samajwadi Party, to show his loyalty for Mukhtar.

Mukhtar Ansari’s impunity under the Mulayam Government was no less than that of Atiq. In 2004, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Shailendra Singh, a brave police officer of Varanasi unit of the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh, intercepted a call and nabbed the Mukhtar’s handlers for procuring a Light Machine Gun (LMG). DSP Shailendra filed charges against Mukhtar under the Arms Act and POTA. Mulayam Government had put tremendous pressure on Shailendra Singh to change the FIR or remove Mukhtar Ansari’s name from the POTA case. The very next month Shailendra Singh was forced to resigned from the police services. Mukhtar was viciously vindictive. A few months after Shailendra Singh’s resignation, Mukhtar ensured that a cooked-up FIR was lodged against Shailendra and tortured him for almost two decades. After 16 years, it was the Yogi Government which has withdrawn the case against Shailendra Singh in 2021, based on the report given by the Assistant Prosecution Officer. Later, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi, issued an order to withdraw the case against Shailendra Singh.

Yogi Government has demolished illegal properties belonging to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Ghazipur. It included Hotel Ghazal which was being run by Ansari’s wife and his sons

As we stand today, Yogi Government has demolished illegal properties belonging to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Ghazipur. Yogi’s administration has demolished the Ghazipur-situated Hotel Ghazal which was being run by Ansari’s wife and his sons. The hotel was often referred to as Mukhtar Ansari’s ‘Taj Mahal’. Before this, Yogi Government also demolished Mukhtar’s another illegal property in Dalibagh colony in Lucknow. Yogi Government also seized several properties worth crores of rupees of the aides of Mukhtar Ansari in Jaunpur. Illegal property belonging to his relatives and associates is being identified and marked and 17 mafias have been identified and marked. These include alcohol mafias, cow smuggling and criminal mafias. This is unbelievable for the people of Uttar Pradesh that this can happen to the all-powerful mafia-don Mukhtar Ansar. He is the same Mukhtar Ansari, who was protected by Mulayam Singh Yadav in the shooting and killing of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005, He is the same Mukhtar Ansari, who was made an MLA by BSP and He is same Mukhtar Ansari, whom even Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tried to save from Yogi Government, using the police of Congress’ then Punjab Government.

In spite of all these efforts to save Mukhtar, karma is catching on the mafia-politician and on April 29th 2023 a court in UP is about to pronounce verdict in one of the many cases against Mukhtar Ansari.

Yogi Government’s zero-tolerance for criminals

After Yogi’s crackdown on gangsters like Atiq and Mukhtar, many leaders like Akhilesh Yadav and Asaduddin Owaisi blamed Yogi Government for selective hunting against the minority community. But this blame stands far from the facts. From 2017 to 2023, the Yogi Government has done 10,933 operations against the dreaded criminals and mafias in which the UP police arrested 23,348 criminals. In less than 1 per cent of these arrests, criminals cross fired and the police had to attack in self-defence and killed 183 of these dreaded criminals in such encounters. Of these 183 dead criminals, only 32 per cent come from the Muslim community. Theirs is never a hue and cry for the remaining 70 per cent of encounters  of criminals from non-Muslim communities. Aditya Rana, a prized criminal, was shot dead in Bijnor in UP just a day before Atiq’s son Asad’s encounter. But that never became a 9 pm TV debate. But Asad is a vote bank for leaders, whose politics depends on minority appeasement. That’s why Kapil Sibal, who was trained in Congress culture and is now a Rajya Sabha member due to Samajwadi Party’s support, finds Asad, a young boy whose age is just 19 and as per Sibal he cannot be any threat to the security of the country.

But certainly, it should be a matter of concern for the social, religious and political leaders of the Muslim community that when Muslims constitute only around 19 per cent in UP’s population, then why do they represent disproportionately more in the prisons and the criminal records of UP? Is madrasas education a reason for this radicalisation? Are radical speeches by the likes of Owaisi brothers to be blamed for it? Is years of Muslim appeasement, politics of Congress and others have provided this sense of impunity to the youth of Muslim community? And not only in UP, such data holds good for many other parts of the world. In New York, USA, Muslims make up about 9 per cent of state prisoners, though they are only about 1 per cent in the population. In the UK, Muslims make up 18 per cent of criminals in jail, whereas they are only 4 per cent of UK’s population.

Investors In and Mafia Out in Uttar Pradesh

As a result of a mafia-free Uttar Pradesh created under Yogi Government, massive investments are coming into the State. In the recently concluded Global Investment Summit (GIS), UP attracted an investment of around Rs 33 lakh crores. Before 2017, investors were scared to come to Uttar Pradesh and now gangsters are sacred to operate in the State. That’s a tectonic shift in Uttar Pradesh of today.

From 2017 to 2023, the Yogi Government has done 10,933 operations against the dreaded criminals and mafias in which the UP police arrested 23,348 criminals

Today many foreign newspapers are referring Atiq as a former lawmaker, a Robinhood and a messiah of the poor. One senior Indian journalist even praised the taste of the briyani that the likes of Atiq and Mukhtar fed him when he went to interview them. Such attempts to whitewash the crimes of these gangsters may continue for a while. But the people of Uttar Pradesh are overwhelmingly echoing this sentiment that Yogi Government has ensured that the mafia is on its way out and prosperity is on its way in.