With power shift, jail shift for UP dons

Shahira Naim

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Tribune News Service

Lucknow, April 3

The change of regime has meant a change of jails for mafia dons-turned-politicians of Uttar Pradesh who reportedly run their empires from behind bars.

Soon after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took over, Mau MLA Mukhtar Ansari was transferred from Lucknow to Banda jail in Bundelkhand and former MP Atiq Ahmad from Allahabad’s Naini jail to Deoria. Another mafia don, Munna Bajrangi, reportedly close to Ansari and presently incarcerated in Jhansi jail in Bundelkhand, is being shifted to western UP. 

However, the state government is going slow on shifting Mukhtar Ansari’s beta noir MLC Brijesh Singh who is in Varanasi central jail. Reportedly close to the BJP, Brijesh’s nephew Sushil Singh is a BJP MLA, explaining why the administration is taking its time in shifting him.

In Mau rally on March 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that the state’s prisons would become genuine jails and imprisoned ‘bahubalis’ would not be able to treat it like their citadel. 

Clearly hinting at the continuing clout of five-time MLA Mukhtar Ansari in Mau, who has been contesting and winning elections from behind bars, Modi had said, “I wonder why in UP musclemen go to jail smiling and posing for the camera. I think they know that they would easily carry on their illegal activity from the safety of the jail and their imprisonment would give them an alibi.”