Former Member of Parliament and don Atiq Ahmad, who was accused of abducting and torturing Lucknow-based realtor Mohit Jaiswal in Deoria jail last week, was shifted to Bareilly district jail on Tuesday.

He was brought to Bareilly district prison at around 8am by a team of two dozen cops amid heavy police bandobast. The police team, with Ahmad in an anti-riot vehicle (‘vajra vahan’), left Deoria jail for Bareilly late on Monday evening. Heavy security was ensured throughout the route.

Talking to media persons outside Bareilly jail, Ahmad alleged, “I have been implicated in a false case with a well-planned conspiracy and shifted to Bareilly jail. The state government is resorting to vindictive politics and harassing me.”

He said politicians and senior government officials were favouring Jaiswal, as he had “invested their (politicians’) black money in his businesses”.

“Now, I will have enough time inside the jail to plan for the Lok Sabha polls. I will contest the upcoming election and am discussing poll strategies with different political parties,” said Ahmad, without mentioning the political party he was aiming to contest from.

Superintendent of Bareilly district jail, Uday Tratap Mishra, said Ahmad would be kept in a high security barrack. “He will be kept in complete isolation and information about other jail inmates who are associated with the mafia don will be collected, so that he cannot operate his criminal activities from the prison premises,” said Mishra.

ADG (jail) Chandra Prakash said that Ahmad was to be shifted to the central jail here, however, in the absence of a jail superintendent there, he was moved to the district jail, which is “newly built, well-staffed and highly secure”.

The ADG informed that 18 jails in UP were functioning without superintendents. “These jails were being run by only jailers. A report has been sent to the administration in this regard,” he said.

Earlier, Jaiswal had also accused Ahmad’s aides of forcing him to transfer five of his firms in their names.

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Caption: Screen grab from a video showing Atiq Ahmad outside the Bareilly district jail on Tuesday.

First Published: Jan 02, 2019 11:13 IST