Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh): A week after Abdul Samad alias Saddam, a known associate of the notorious Atiq Ahmed gang was arrested, the wanted criminal has been confined in a high-security barrack under specific instructions, said an official.
Giving information Senior Jail Superintendent, Central Jail Bareilly, Vipin Kumar Mishra said, "Wanted criminal Saddam has been kept in high-security barrack. A policeman has been deployed with him, to keep a check. His main demand was that he be kept in a barrack. We have given specific instructions on his movement in and out of the prison."
"There should be a jailer or a deputy jailer at all times, during his movements out of the prison, and if both of them are not available, I have instructed that I will be there to keep a check. The prisoner gives ten names of friends or relatives, during their period in jail. We specify those names and keep track of them," SP Mishra.
The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UP STF) arrested Saddam from Delhi on September 26.
Saddam, who is also the brother-in-law of Ashraf Ahmed, Atiq's brother, was carrying a bounty of Rs 1 lakh on his head.
According to the police, the arrest was made around 2 am when the accused reached at a DDA flat located opposite Delhi's Select City Walk mall in Malviya Nagar to meet his girlfriend.
Following the arrest police recovered two mobile phones and a car from his possession.
Abdul Samad a resident of UP’s Prayagraj during integration revealed that he kept on changing his residence from place to place in Delhi, Karnataka and Mumbai to avoid arrest.
Abdul Samad allegedly played a key role in facilitating meetings between individuals and Ashraf Ahmed during the latter's imprisonment at Bareilly jail.
“This operation (to arrest Abdul Samad, alias Saddam) was conducted by the Bareilly unit of the UP STF. He was arrested in Malviya Nagar, Delhi. He was an important and trusted member of the gang. Interrogation is going on, and we will inform you further about this," said, ADG UP STF.
Gangsters Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmad were shot dead by assailants posing as journalists on April 15 outside the hospital in Prayagraj.
All three assailants -- Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh and Lovelesh Tiwari -- were sent to judicial custody by the district court.
Atiq Ahmed was accused in the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal and also in the killing of a key witness in that case, Umesh Pal, in February this year.
—ANI