CBI quizzes Deoria jail officials over extortion by Ateeq Ahmed

A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned jail officials here in connection with a case in which former MP Ateeq Ahmed is accused of kidnapping and assaulting a real estate dealer inside the prison.

The probe agency had last week registered an FIR against Ahmed and others on the charges of abduction and assault on real estate dealer Mohit Jaiswal in December 2018.

The CBI checked the jail records and quizzed the prison officials who were on duty when the alleged incident took place.

In a complaint, Jaiswal had claimed that on December 26, 2018, aides of former MP Atiq Ahmad forcibly took him to Deoria jail where Ahmad along with his son and 10-12 other miscreants were present, who forced him to transfer four of his companies to people associated with the former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader.

"I was thrashed inside the jail by the accomplices of Atiq Ahmad. Forcefully my four companies were transferred in the name of two associates of Ahmad. I was also made to sign on 15-10 plain papers and they also made me leave my Fortuner vehicle in the jail," he had said in the FIR.

Ahmed was an SP member in the 14th Lok Sabha from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh from 2004 to 2009.