UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday claimed that gangsters, who used to terrorise people with extortion threats and abduct them without caring for law and order, were now wetting their pants after their sentencing by courts.
Addressing a gathering after the 'bhoomi pujan' of a bottling plant here, Adityanath said people are seeing now that those who showed little respect for law and order earlier were now running for their lives.
"When the court sentences them, their wet pants are becoming visible. People are seeing it. The mafia used to terrorise people, send extortion threats to industrialists, abduct businessmen. But today they are out of their wits (scared) and running for their lives," the chief minister said.
His remarks have come days after an MP/MLA court held gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and two others guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. That was Ahmad's first conviction even though more than 100 cases have been registered against him.
The 60-year-old former Samajwadi Party MP was brought from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat by road for hearing in the case in Prayagraj. Before leaving the jail in a police cavalcade, Ahmad said he feared he might be killed. "Hatya, hatya (murder, murder)," Ahmed said outside the prison.
During the long journey, Ahmad's vehicle was stopped in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh to allow him to attend nature's call. There, he was asked by reporters whether he was afraid, to which he said, "Kahe ka dar" (what fear).
The Uttar Pradesh administration began cracking down on his aids and gang members after the killing of Umesh Pal, a witness in the murder of BSP legislator Raju Pal in January 2005, in broad daylight in Prayagraj.
After the brazen criminal act, Adityanath had vowed in the state assembly that he will destroy the mafia.
On Friday, a special court in Lucknow framed charges against Ahmad, his son Umar and 15 others in connection with the kidnapping of businessman Mohit Jaiswal in 2018.
The prosecution alleged that Ahmad, despite in jail, got Jaiswal kidnapped from his office at Gomtinagar. Later, he was taken to Deoria jail where Ahmad got the businessman assaulted. He obtained Jaiswal's signature on a blank paper and grabbed his property worth Rs 45 crore.