Capturing of Indian ‘godfather’ politician sparks alarm about legislation and order in nation’s largest state | CNN

New Delhi, India
CNN
 — 

The brazen assassination of a former Indian lawmaker and his brother in entrance of stay tv cameras whereas below police custody has sparked renewed anger over the blurred traces between politics and crime within the nation’s most populous state.

With greater than 240 million folks, Uttar Pradesh’s inhabitants is bigger than most nations, but the state has lengthy been one in all India’s poorest, held again by a repute for corruption and arranged crime.

However what passed off on Saturday was particularly stunning and has transfixed a lot of India.

Atiq Ahmed, a former lawmaker and convicted prison, was gunned down alongside his brother Ashraf at level clean vary by at the very least one gunman who posed as a journalist in an incident that was broadcast stay.

A former Samajwadi Social gathering member of India’s parliament, Atiq was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life in jail final month following a protracted twin profession as each a politician and a mainstay of Uttar Pradesh’s prison underworld.

The homicide within the metropolis of Prayagraj passed off whereas police had been escorting the pair for a medical check-up, the state’s Police Commissioner Ramit Sharma informed reporters.

Dramatic footage confirmed the 2 handcuffed brothers surrounded by a press gaggle as a gunman fired a number of pictures.

Three individuals who had been posing as journalists on the time have been arrested for questioning, Sharma added.

The extrajudicial killing has sparked widespread concern concerning the state of legislation and order in Uttar Pradesh in addition to fears of retaliation.

Gilles Verniers, a political science professor at Ashoka College in New Delhi, whose analysis has centered on electoral and occasion politics in Uttar Pradesh, informed CNN Saturday’s incident represents “a break-down of the very idea of the rule of legislation.”

“The bigger significance is what this implies for the rule of legislation and the transformation of the that means of the rule of legislation from a system of justice that’s presupposed to comply with due course of and be neutral and never be arbitrary right into a type of self justice within the hand of the manager that’s basically arbitrary, violent and partisan,” Verniers mentioned.

Following the incident, web providers had been quickly suspended throughout the town of Prayagraj, also referred to as Allahabad.

Web shutdowns have develop into more and more widespread in India, together with as just lately as final month when authorities blocked entry to the web in Punjab for days as police looked for a Sikh activist who was on the run.

The federal government has repeatedly tried to justify blocking web entry on the grounds of preserving public security amid fears of communal violence. However critics say the shutdowns are one more blow to the nation’s dedication to freedom of speech and entry to data.

Lengthy earlier than he was a politician, Atiq was recognized for his prison underworld hyperlinks, a duality that isn’t unusual within the tough and tumble of Uttar Pradesh’s political scene.

On the age of simply 17, Atiq was accused of homicide. A decade later, he was elected as a member of Uttar Pradesh’s legislative meeting the place he served 5 instances, from 1989 to 2004. He additionally served as a member of India’s nationwide parliament from 2004 to 2009.

“He used politics to his personal benefit to additional not solely his political profession but additionally his prison property and prison actions,” mentioned Vikram Singh, previously the Director Common of Police in Uttar Pradesh who had a number of dealings with Atiq, together with arresting him below the Gangsters Act in 2007.

He got here from humble beginnings, because the son of a horse cart driver, and rose to be “one thing akin to the godfather,” Singh informed CNN, including that the listing of crimes Atiq had been accused of all through his life ranged from homicide and theft to extortion and land grabs.

In March, Atiq was sentenced to life in jail for the 2006 kidnapping of Umesh Pal, the prime witness in a 2005 homicide case for which Atiq was himself the principle suspect, CNN affiliate News18 reported.

Atiq’s dying got here every week after police shot and killed his son Asad. Asad was the principle suspect within the February homicide of Umesh Pal – the person Atiq was convicted of kidnapping, Reuters reported.

Police in Uttar Pradesh have killed greater than 180 suspected criminals throughout encounters over previous six years, based on Reuters.

Questions have been raised as as to whether police gave satisfactory safety to the 2 brothers who had been surrounded by reporters.

Atiq and his brother had been being escorted by police for what Singh mentioned was a routine medical check-up after they had been shot.

“The police safety ought to have been idiot proof and fail proof which it was not,” Singh mentioned. “The shoot out that occurred is unacceptable.”

CNN reached out to Uttar Pradesh police for touch upon the scenario however didn’t obtain a response previous to publication.

Following the incident, the Uttar Pradesh state authorities introduced it would type two three-member Particular Process Forces (SIT) to analyze the killing of Atiq and his brother.

However the murders have raised questions concerning the governance of Uttar Pradesh, significantly from opponents of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Social gathering which at the moment holds political energy within the state.

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal state and president of the Trinamool Congress Social gathering, claimed in a tweet Sunday that the incident illustrated a “complete collapse of legislation and order in Uttar Pradesh.”

Mahua Moitra, a member of parliament with the Trinamool Congress Social gathering who has vocally criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi previously, tweeted that the “BJP has turned India right into a mafia republic.”

Noting that the 2 brothers had been shot lifeless “in entrance of a zillion policemen and cameras” she declared “that is the dying of the rule of legislation.”

The state’s former chief minister, the Samajwadi Social gathering’s Akhilesh Yadav, recommended the dying of his former occasion member prompted issues about public security below BJP rule.

“When somebody will be killed by firing brazenly amidst the safety cordon of the police, then what concerning the security of most of the people,” Yadav tweeted.

Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Social gathering, who additionally beforehand served because the state’s chief minister, mentioned the taking pictures gave option to “severe query marks” over the functioning of the federal government, headed by the BJP’s Yogi Adityanath.

Responding to allegations concerning the legislation and order scenario in Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath mentioned folks ought to “not pay heed to rumors.”

In the meantime India’s Minister of Data Anurag Thakur recommended opposition occasion criticism of the assault was additionally hypocritical.

“These similar mafia leaders used to assault widespread folks, kill and loot them,” he informed reporters. “By no means heard any of those politicians talking in opposition to it.”