District Magistrate of Deoria along with local police chief raided the district jail on Thursday morning following a audio clip went viral which showed a caller identifying himself as mafia don turned politician Atiqe Ahmad making extortion call. Interestingly, the raid also yielded results as some SIM cards and other digitial storage devices along with a knife have been recovered by the police. However, it was yet to be confirmed whether the same has been used to make extortion call or not.
Superintendent of police in Deoria, Rohan P Kanay told media persons soon after completing the raid that during surprise check of the prison they recovered a mobile phone along with charger, one knife, 4 pen drives and 4 SIM cards. He said stringent actions would be taken against the culprits as well as against jail authorities after finding that who facilitated the prisoners to carry objectionable items.
He said that probe in this regard has been already ordered. “Four pen drives cards were recovered from barrack of mafia don Atique Ahmad. IT department will analyse the data in it and further actions would be taken as per requirement” Kanay further added. Kanay said that raids were being conducted in past but it was first time when huge number of force were there with senior officials. “Over 300 policemen along with 15 nodal officers were there in the raid” he pointed out.
It may be mentioned that close on the heels all alleged extortion call made by former cabinet minister Gyatri Prajapati from lucknow district jail, another similar call allegedly made by mafia don turned politician Atiqe Ahmed, from Deoria district jail hit the social media on last Monday, alerting the to jail officials who were already on the back-foot after recently killing of Eastern UP Ganglord, Prem Prakash Singh aka Munna Bajrangi inside Baghpat District Jail.
Sources confirmed that an audio clip pointed that an extortion call to one Asif Siddiqui, owning big steel industry in Mumbai has been made from the Deoria Jail. In the audio clip, Atiqe was allegedly making a call to Siddiqui demanding an extortion of Rs 10 crore.
Though no official confirmation has been made in this regard but the news went like a wild fire particularly in Allahabad, the native place of Ahmed. Asif was also hailing from Saroan area of Allahabad and shot fame after he organised NNS Cricket tournament in the district before joining Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He owned a big steel business in Mumbai. Asif also contested last lok Sabha elections from Pratapgarh on BSP ticket but lost in BJP wave. He was now once again preparing for Parliament polls, reportedly on SP ticket. Sources said that in the call made to Anees, the caller claiming him to be Atiqe Ahmed, first abused Anees and asking him about his location. When Anees said that he was in Mumbai and was about to visit Allahabad in connection with preparation of lok Sabha polls, the caller once again abused him and asked him to pay the extortion.