CBI books ex-MP Ateeq Ahmad for extortion of businessman

New Delhi: The CBI has booked former MP Ateeq Ahmad and others for allegedly orchestrating the abduction of a Lucknow-based businessman from Deoria Jail to extort money from him and take over his business, officials said on Thursday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Ahmad, former Samajwadi Party (SP) MP from Uttar Pradesh, on the charges of criminal conspiracy, extortion, cheating, forgery, robbery and criminal intimidation, they added.

The agency has not added the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections related to abduction in its FIR. According to the procedure, the CBI takes over the probe on an FIR registered by the state police without adding or deleting any charges. However, it can add or delete any charge at the time of filing its final report in court.

Real estate dealer Mohit Jaiswal was allegedly abducted from Lucknow and taken to Deoria Jail, where he was assaulted by Ahmad and his aides, who were lodged there, and forced to transfer his business to them, officials said.

Ahmad was a Samajwadi Party (SP) member in the 14th Lok Sabha from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh from 2004 to 2009. Jaiswal, who has a real estate business in the posh Gomti Nagar area in Lucknow, had alleged that Ahmad was threatening him for extortion for the last two years.

The businessman had said he had made some payments to Ahmad, after which the demands for money had stopped for a while, but the politician again started asking for money from him in 2018.

He had alleged that Ahmad's goons had taken over his business forcibly by obtaining his and his sister's digital signatures. Even after such pressure, Jaiswal had claimed that he had not transferred any shares to them.

He had alleged that on December 26, 2018, he was taken in his own sports utility vehicle (SUV) by one of Ahmad's goons to Deoria Jail, where the former MP was lodged.

Ahmad's son Umar and 10-12 other gang members were also present in the jail, who beat him up, causing serious injuries to him, Jaiswal had alleged. Four of his companies, including MJ Infra Housing Private Limited, were transferred in the name of Farooq and Zaki Ahmad, both goons of Ahmad who had been threatening him, he had alleged.

The combined assets of the firms were worth Rs 45 crore, the FIR said,

They had also taken his signatures on his company letterhead in the jail, Jaiswal had claimed. The businessman had also alleged that Ahmad threatened him, saying he could not be killed inside the jail and hence, he was being allowed to go. But the politician had forcibly kept his SUV in the jail, Jaiswal had alleged.