"Atiq wet his pants...": Former ED director recounts Delhi Police Special Cell's encounter with slain ganglord

New Delhi: Recounting an encounter of Delhi Police's Special Cell -- a unit mostly tasked with fighting terrorism and going after dreaded criminals -- with the slain gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed in 2008, former director of Enforcement Directorate (ED), Karnal Singh, on Thursday said the feared gang lord once "wet his pants" on seeing the police.
"The incident dates back to January 2008 when I was in the Special Cell of Delhi Police. The Special Cell had created a database of dreaded criminals from north India and the list figured Atiq as well. He had a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head at the time and was declared absconding," the former ED director told ANI in an exclusive interview. He revealed further that a crack team of the Delhi Police Special Cell was assigned to go after Atiq at the time.
"And when the Special Cell investigates a case, they track every detail minutely, ranging from cases registered against an impugned person to his associates," Singh said.
"The team recovered the phone number of Atiq's sharpshooter after which they put him on technical surveillance (through the phone number). They listened in on a phone call in which Atiq said he was on his way to a house in Delhi's Pitampura," Singh told ANI, adding that the Special Cell team reached the location and surrounded the house.
"As he stepped out of the house and proceeded to climb into his car, an officer confronted him. He pointed a gun at him, asking him to get out of the car. On being informed that the team surrounding him was from the Special Cell, he was visibly scared and wet his pants," Singh recalled.
He said Atiq was then brought to the Special Cell office before being handed over to the Uttar Pradesh Police.
In a shocking turn of events on April 15, three shooters -- Arun Maurya, Sunny Singh and Lovelesh Tiwari -- posing as media persons, gunned down Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, while they were being taken for medical in Prayagraj.
The gangster siblings were surrounded by a sizeable contingent of police escorts at the time of the incident.
Atiq was accused in the 2005 muder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal and, subsequently, in the killing of advocate Umesh Pal, a key witness to the earlier incident, in February this year. (ANI)