The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has rejected the bail application of three accomplices of former SP MP Ateeq Ahmed in the case related to kidnapping a real estate businessman, taking him to Deoria jail, beating him and forcibly signing documents.
A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Bail Application filed by Jafarullah, Zaki Ahmad and Mohd Farukh.
All the three bail applications relate to FIR registered by the CBI/SCB / Lucknow, under Sections 147, 149, 386, 329, 420, 467, 468, 471, 394, 506 and 120-B IPC, in addition to this, accused-applicant, Jafarullah has sought bail under Sections 364-A and 411 IPC also, lodged at Police Station CBI/SCB, District Lucknow against co-accused Atiq Ahmad, mafia don and one of the biggest ‘Bahubali’ of Utter Pradesh and Ex-Member of Parliament, Mohd Farukh, Zaki Ahmad, Umar, Jafarullah, Gulam Sarvar and 10-12 others.
Initially, FIR came to be registered under Sections 147, 149, 386, 329, 420, 467, 468, 471, 394, 506 and 120-B IPC at Police Station Krishnanagar, District Lucknow on a complaint given by Mohit Jaiswal dated 28.12.2018.
In the said FIR, allegations were made against Ateeq Ahmad, former Member of Parliament from Phoolpur in Allahabad, who was then lodged in District Jail, Deoria, for pressuring complainant Mohit Jaiswal, a businessman of real estate, having office at Gomti Nagar, Lucknow for giving extortion money; due to fear of his life, the complainant had give some extortion money; when the complainant could not pay further extortion money demanded by co-accused, Atiq Ahmad, two henchmen/accomplices of accused, Atiq Ahmad, namely Mohd Farukh and Zaki Ahmad, who were demanding extortion money on behalf of mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad, abducted Mohit Jaiswal in his car and took him to District Jail, Deoria where co accused, Atiq Ahmad was present along with his henchmen/accomplices.
Accused, Mohd Farukh and Zaki Ahmad had taken possession of office of the complainant, forcibly and inducted themselves in the Board of the complainant’s four companies, MJ Infra Green Private Limited, MJ Infra Land, LLP and MJ Infra Estate Private Limited; mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad and his henchmen/accomplices, other co-accused had thrashed the complainant mercilessly inside the jail; his fingers were broken and several internal and external injuries were caused to him; mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad, in jail premises itself got the papers signed from the complainant for transferring the complainant’s four companies, mentioned above, in the name of his associates/accomplices, accused-applicants, Mohd Farukh and Zaki Ahmad; the complainant’s Fortuner Car was also snatched from him.
Further allegations made in the FIR are that the Don had obtained signatures of the complainant, putting him in fear of his life, on blank letter-heads, including his resignation letter and forced him to make forged signatures of his sister also on blank papers. Co-accused, Atiq Ahmad also obtained digital signatures of the complainant and his sister and got names of his associates/accomplices inducted in all the four companies.
The local police (Police Station Krishnanagar) had filed chargesheet on 23.03.2019 against eight accused, namely, i. Atiq Ahmad; ii. Mukhtar; iii. Alamgeer; iv. Balkat Ali Ansari; v. Dayanand; vi. Gulam Moinuddin Siddiqui; vii. Irfan; and viii. Gulam Sarvar.
When the incident was reported, a petition came to be filed in the Supreme Court by a public-spirited-lawyer, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, styled as Writ Petition.
The Court noted that,
In compliance with the aforesaid directions issued by the Supreme Court order dated 23.04.2019, the CBI took over the investigation and registered the case.
The CBI, in its investigation, has opined that complainant, Mohit Jaiswal, could not muster courage earlier to lodge complaint against mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad, who had been five times Member of Legislative Assembly, one time Member of Parliament and one of the biggest Bahubali, a criminal, against whom 106 criminal cases, including of heinous offences, like murder, abduction, & extortion etc are pending trial. The complainant, Mohit Jaiswal could make a complaint when he became certain that he would lose his life, besides property in the hands of the accused. Presence of the accused-applicants in District Jail, Deoria, on the date of incident, along with co-accused is fully established where complainant, Mohit Jaiswal was brutally assaulted by the accused and divested of his four companies/firms as he could not pay the extortion money. Medico-legal report of the complainant would suggest brutality of the assault by the accused inside the District Jail, Deoria on 26.12.2018, at around 3 p.m.
Accused-applicant, Zaki Ahmad, allegedly along with co-accused, had beaten the complainant inside the District Jail, Deoria as a result thereof, the complainant had suffered grievous injuries.
During the course of investigation, the accused, Jafarullah was subjected to a test identification parade and the complainant identified him in presence of Chander Patel, SDM, Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow in District Jail, Lucknow.
The CBI, in its investigation, has collected evidence to establish that the accused-applicant, Jafarullah, in conspiracy with co-accused severally thrashed complainant, Mohit Jaiswal inside the District Jail, Deoria with an intention to extort money and rob him for his firms, and made him forcefully transfer ownership of his four companies in the name of accused-applicants, Mohd Farukh, a close associate of mafia don, Atiq Ahmad and Zaki Ahmad, brother-in-law of co accused, Atiq Ahmad.
The accused-applicants are members of a dreaded gang headed by mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad, who had acquired properties of several hundred crores of rupees by his criminal activities. He and his associates operate gangs in Prayagraj and other parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh where mafia culture has been prevalent, and there have been several mafia dons, but co-accused, Atiq Ahmad is one of the biggest mafia don and Bahubali.
Allegation against accused-applicant, Jafarullah is that he along with co-accused in furtherance of their criminal conspiracy abducted complainant, Mohit Jaiswal, who could not pay extortion money time and again and took him to District Jail, Deoria where mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad was detained, and they mercilessly thrashed him and forced the complainant to make bogus signature of his sister, Smt Arti Jaiswal also and obtained signatures on blank papers to transfer the four companies/firms of the complainant in favour of accused-applicants Mohd Farukh and Zaki Ahmad.
Accused applicant, Jafarullah has criminal history of one case lodged at Crime/ FIR under Sections 147, 148, 149, 452, 504, 506 and 323 IPC read with Section 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act, lodged at Police Station Dhoomanganj, District Prayagraj.
The Court further noted that,
Investigation had revealed that the accused-applicant, Jafarullah is also a close associate/accomplice of mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad. On 26.12.2018, he stayed in K.P Hotel, Deoria along with co-accused in Room allotted on the identity of accused-applicant, Jafarullah. Location and call details would show presence of the accused in District Jail, Deoria at the time of incident. The complainant was made to resign forcibly from his four firms and two accused were inducted as partners on 05.11.2018 on the basis of a supplemental agreement on admission-cum-retirement of partner as a supplement to the original LLP Agreement.
Poly-graphic test of the co-accused, Pawan Singh revealed that the documents, including resignation, were sent by accused-applicant, Jafarullah from the jail itself through whatsApp to one Mahender Singh, employee of accused, chartered-accountant, Nitesh Mishra.
The CBI, after collecting the evidence, had filed charge-sheet against accused-applicant, Zaki Ahmad on 11.10.2019 under Sections 147, 149, 329, 364-A, 386, 394, 411, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506 and 120-B IPC. Names of accused-applicants, Mohd Farukh and Zaki Ahmad had been inducted in the four companies/firms of the complainant, after he was abducted and mercilessly assaulted inside the District Jail, Deoria by the mafia don and his henchmen and he was forcibly made to resign from his four companies/firms and his signatures were obtained on blank-papers. As a result of signatures obtained of the complainant and forged signatures of his sister, Smt Arti Jaiswal, on his resignation letter, where the complainant and his sister ceased to be the directors/partners of the companies and the accused-applicants, Zaki Ahmad and Mohd Farukh got inducted.
Accused-applicant, Zaki Ahmad, had criminal history of two cases; (1) Crime/FIR No1083 of 2018, under Sections 419, 420 and 447 IPC and Crime/FIR No1473 of 2017, under Section 447 IPC both lodged at Police Station Dhoomanganj, Prayagraj.
After the complainant and his sister were removed from the directorship of the four companies/firms with effect from 05.11.2018, an amount of Rs 6,87,500/- was transferred from the bank account of accused-applicant, Mohd, Farukh to the bank account of complainant, Mohit Jaiswal and Rs 6,00,000/- to the bank account of Smt Arti Jaiswal on 29.12.2018 by diverting the funds from the account of MJ Infra Housing Private Limited.
On 27.12.2018, an amount of Rs 6,37, 500 was deposited in cash in the account of accused-applicant Mohd Farukh, who has a long criminal history of 21 cases.
Having heard H.G.S Parihar, Senior Counsel, assisted by Amjad Siddiqui, appearing for the accused-applicants, and Anurag Kumar Singh, assisted by Dharmendra Pratap Singh, counsel for the respondent C.B.I and looking at the facts & circumstances of the case, including the evidence collected during the course of investigation by the investigating agency, the Court did not find it to be a fit case for enlarging the accused-applicants on bail.
“The accused-applicants are hardened criminals and close associates/accomplices of mafia don, co-accused, Atiq Ahmad, and if they are enlarged on bail, apprehension of the CBI that they would influence the witnesses and tamper with the evidence cannot be ruled out. Bail pleas of two co-accused, namely, Gulam Moinuddeen Siddiqui and Gulam Sarvar have already been rejected by the Court orders dated 12.05.2022”, the Court observed while rejecting the bail applications.