Govt’s allegations straight out of Bollywood script: Atiq Ahmed

BAREILLY: Former MP and strongman Atiq Ahmed said here on Tuesday the government’s claim that he had got a trader kidnapped into his cell at Deoria jail was all fabricated and lifted straight from a Bollywood potboiler.
Speaking to media persons after being brought to Bareilly jail from Deoria after the reports that he was running an extortion racket from the prison, Atiq said: “Aisa kahin suna hain? Yeh toh filmon me hota hai ki vyapari ko uthakar Lucknow se le ayen jail mein (Have you ever heard such a thing before? It happens only in movies where a businessman is abducted and taken to Deoria jail).”

Atiq Ahmad also said that he would contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Ahmad was sitting in the rear seat of the vehicle, instead of prisoner’s box attached with it, throughour his journey from Deoria to Bareilly.

When superintendent of jail of Deoria, VK Pandey, was asked about this VIP' treatment, he said: “We had handed over Ahmad to civil police to take him to Bareilly safe and sound. They might have offered him the rear seat for a long travel on humanitarian ground seeing his age and ailments. This shouldn’t not be linked to any VIP treatment.”

Meanwhile, on reaching Bareilly district jail, Ahmad said, “Police lodged a fake FIR against me. All things will be clear once the investigation is over. The businessman, on whose behest the FIR was lodged, has close connections with several senior officials who had deposited their black money with him during demonetisation. Now these officials are supporting him.”

When reminded that the telephonic conversation between Atiq Ahmad and the victim businessman — in which he can be heard threatening him — was already in the public domain, he said: “We discuss several business related issues when we work in association with somebody.”