Banda court orders judicial probe into Mukhtar Ansari’s death, seeks report in a month

New Delhi, March 29

A chief judicial magistrate’s court at Banda in Uttar Pradesh on Friday ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a senior official said in Lucknow.

Banda Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (MP-MLA Court, Banda), as the investigating officer in the case, the official said, adding that the CJM has sought the probe report in a month. Ansari was brought to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda from the district jail in “an unconscious state” on Thursday evening and died at the hospital following a cardiac arrest. Earlier, he was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain. According to the probe order letter, a request was made by the Senior Superintendent, District Jail, Banda, on March 28 to nominate an officer for the judicial inquiry into the death of Ansari.

Director General of Prisons SN Sabat had earlier said there would be a judicial inquiry into the matter.

Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari had on Tuesday alleged that his brother was given slow poison in jail. “Mukhtar said that he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also, he was given poison. And recently, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad,” Afzal Ansari had said.

The Ghazipur MP had said that during the virtual hearing of a case in a Barabanki court on March 21, Ansari’s lawyer had filed an application in the court alleging that his client had been given “slow poison” in jail due to which his condition was deteriorating. — (With inputs)