CM Yogi Adityanath’s crackdown on the mafia was popular, but the brazen custodial killing of Atiq Ahmed threatens to discredit his campaign
Photo montage by Bandip Singh
Annseparated the muzzle from its temple except for a small portion of that trademark white Sweep around his head, tied like that tangawallah Father probably used to do it during the day in the blazing heat of Allahabad. A gun went out of nowhere, a flash of burning light, a staccato crackle and Uttar Pradesh’s dreaded mafia don Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf fell to the ground. With him crumbled a crime empire that had metastasized to other parts of the body politic over a long period of time – including a stint in the Lok Sabha and several in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. The murder of a gangster-turned-politician on live TV was dramatic enough to garner space in the world press, and perhaps an unwanted deviation from the narrative being crafted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. But even though by unintended association, the infamous freeze-frame has become a moment that encapsulates an epic battle of the law – black, white and all shades of gray – against the tangled network of mafias that has dominated the state’s political landscape. Has choked the economy for a long time. decade. It’s a fight that has cleared some of a lawless jungle, leaving behind a cloud of questions and writing a new chapter in the definition of justice by pushing it to the edges.