Gorakhpur (UP): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed on Saturday that gangsters who previously threatened and forced people to live in fear with extortion threats and abductions without the slightest regard for the law are now trembling in fear after being punished by the courts, media reported.

During the 'bhoomi pujan' (groundbreaking ceremony) ceremony of a bottling plant in Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath said that people are seeing that those who flouted law and order are now trying to flee for their lives and “wetting their pants”.

Mocking the musclemen, who according to Adityanath are now desperate to escape, he said, the “wet pants of the mafias are visible” after being sentenced by the courts.

Yogi Adityanath's statements come shortly after the MP/MLA court pronounced gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and two others guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case, sentencing them to life imprisonment. Despite having over 100 cases registered against him, this was Ahmad's first conviction.

The ex-Samajwadi Party MP was transported by road from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to UP’s Prayagraj for the hearing in the case.

Prior to departing the jail in a police convoy, Ahmad expressed his apprehension that he might be assassinated. Outside the prison, Ahmad exclaimed "Hatya, hatya (murder, murder)."

Following the daylight murder of Umesh Pal, a witness in the killing of BSP legislator Raju Pal in January 2005, in Prayagraj, the Uttar Pradesh administration initiated a crackdown on Atiq Ahmad's aides and gang members.

In response to the brazen crime, Yogi Adityanath had vowed to finish the mafia in Uttar Pradesh during a session of the state assembly. Recently, a specialized court in Lucknow pressed charges against Ahmad, his son Umar, and 15 others regarding the abduction of businessman Mohit Jaiswal in 2018.

According to the prosecution, despite being locked up, Atiq Ahmad orchestrated the abduction of businessman Mohit Jaiswal from his Gomtinagar office.

Subsequently, Ahmad was transferred to Deoria jail, and from there he allegedly had Jaiswal beaten up. He then obtained Jaiswal's signature on a blank sheet of paper and grabbed his assets worth Rs 45 crore.