UP cops denied Mukhtar Ansari’s custody 25 times on health grounds: CM

Tribune News Service

Arun Sharma

Ropar, July 4

The Ropar police had booked the dreaded gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in a five-year-old murder case of a labourer at Morinda, apparently to scuttle any move of the Uttar Pradesh Police to take him away to face criminal cases registered against him in their state.

Was brought on warrant from up

• Jan 22, 2019: The police had brought Mukhtar Ansari on a production warrant from a jail in Uttar Pradesh after lodging an FIR that he had sought a ransom of Rs 10 crore from a builder in Sector 70 in Mohali
• June 27, 2019: Ansari was named in a case related to the murder of a labourer at Morinda
• April 6, 2021: The UP Government got Ansari’s custody through the Supreme Court

CM Bhagwant Mann claimed today that the jail authorities denied custody of Ansari to the UP Police 25 times on medical grounds.

The police had claimed that Ansari was named in the case based on the statement of Vidya Rani, the sister of slain labourer Pawan Gupta on June 27, 2019. Gupta was found murdered in 2014 in a house where he was staying as a watchman at Morinda. An unidentified labourer staying with him was found missing afterwards.

Interestingly, Vidya Rani, talking to The Tribune on March 7, 2021, had claimed that she didn’t know anything about Ansari. Though Vidya Rani could not be contacted by the reporter today, her son Adesh, reiterating that the family was sure that Ansari had nothing to do with the murder of his uncle, said the police again visited their home around six months ago and got signatures of her mother on some papers.

A video in possession of this reporter showed her making a statement, “My brother was a labourer and had no enmity with anyone. What could be his relation with a big gangster or politicians?” Claiming that neither she knew about Ansari, nor she had recorded any such statement with the police. Vidya Rani had also said the police never contacted her after the death of her brother in 2014 and it was only in January 2021 when she was called at the Morinda police station thrice to discuss the progress in the case.

She had also claimed that the police, instead of telling her anything, were only interested to know whether she had any clue about the accused. Later, a policeman visited her house and got her signatures on some papers on the pretext of investigating the case, said Vidya Rani.

After bringing Ansari from Uttar Pradesh in January 2019, he was first booked by the Punjab Police in a case of extortion and intimidation registered at the Mataur police station in Mohali on the complaint of a businessman. The Uttar Pradesh Police, seeking the custody of Ansari on production warrants, were sent back many times by the Ropar jail authorities on medical grounds.

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