'I am safe because of the media...' Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad claims harassment in Sabarmati jail

Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad has claimed that he was being harassed in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat and that the only reason he was was because of the media.

A police team from Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday left with gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad from the high-security Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat's Ahmedabad city for Prayagraj by road in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case.

The team stopped at Survaya police station in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district on Wednesday for about 20 minutes, where media persons asked questions to Ahmad at around 7 am. 

"My family is ruined. I am safe because of you," the 60-year-old former Uttar Pradesh MLA and Lok Sabha member told reporters. 

"I am safe because of you people. I have not telephoned anyone from there (inside the jail) as jammers were installed there. I have not hatched any conspiracy and am behind bars for the last six years," he said. 

When reporters asked about the government's stand that he will be decimated, Ahmad claimed, They have already decimated me. I am also being harassed in the Sabarmati jail. 

Earlier, when Ahmad was taken to Prayagraj from the same route on March 26 and that time also the convoy had stopped in the Shivpuri district. When media persons had posed a question to him if he feared for his life, he said, Kahe ka darr (what is there to be afraid). On Wednesday, the police convoy taking Ahmad to Prayagraj entered the Uttar Pradesh border from Jhansi at around 8.45 am. 

Umesh Pal and his two police security guards were shot dead outside his home in Prayagraj's Dhoomanganj area on February 24 this year. 

Based on a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against Ahmad, his brother Ashraf, his wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others. The Uttar Pradesh Police had on March 26 also taken Ahmad from the Sabarmati jail to Prayagraj to produce him in a court.