Prayagraj (UP), April 21: Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed had made an attempt to grab property belonging to former Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s relatives.
The property belonged to Veera Gandhi in the posh Civil Lines area of Allahabad, now known as Prayagraj.
The incident took place in 2007 when Atiq Ahmed was MP from Phulpur
Since Atiq Ahmed’s clout was well known, no official in the city came forward to help the victim.
Sonia Gandhi had to intervene in the matter herself after which Atiq Ahmed had to reportedly return the keys to the rightful owner.
The prized property behind the Palace theater came to Veera Gandhi’s share in the family partition.
Atiq Ahmed had bought some land from the Asthana family in the vicinity.
When he came to know about Veera Gandhi’s property, he forcibly took possession of it through his henchmen and got it locked.
Sonia Gandhi was the President of the Congress and the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which was in power at the Centre.
According to sources, Veera Gandhi had tried to seek help from the local police and the state government officials to get her property back, but to no avail.
As a last resort, she reportedly sought the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, who asked Rita Bahuguna Joshi, then in the Congress, to get the matter sorted out.
“Atiq Ahmed was extremely greedy when it came to real estate. He had grabbed several properties in the city but had to pull back in the case of Veera Gandhi,” said former IG, Lalji Shukla, who was the SP City in Prayagraj in 2001-03.
Veera Gandhi later had sold many of her properties in Prayagraj and shifted to Mumbai.
She however refused to speak on the matter.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is now in the BJP, said: “Sonia Gandhi did call me up and asked to intervene following which I called the district administration and consequently Atiq Ahmed pulled back in that case.”
