High alert across Uttar Pradesh after gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's death

PTI

Lucknow, March 29

Security personnel in several districts of Uttar Pradesh remained on alert on Friday, a day after jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda.

Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed across the state and teams of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) along with the local police have been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said earlier.

People had also started gathering at Mukhtar Ansari's residence in Ghazipur and there was a large deployment of security personnel around the house.

Officials at the police headquarters here said the postmortem will be conducted at the Banda medical college by a panel of doctors and the procedure will be videographed.

The 63-year-old 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, according to its principal Suneel Kaushal.

Family members of Ansari, including his son Umar Ansari, reached Banda early Friday.

Umar Ansari alleged that his father was subjected to slow poisoning in jail, a charge denied by authorities.

"My father had told us he was being subjected to 'slow poison'," Umar Ansari told reporters and added that the entire country knows about it now.

Umar Ansari said they will take the body to Ghazipur for cremation after the postmortem.

The police has already chalked out a route plan for the safe transit of the body via road from Banda to Ghazipur, a distance of around 380 Km.

Security has also been stepped up in parts of the state in view of Friday prayers.

Mukhtar Ansari was brought to the medical college around 8.25 pm on Thursday in an unconscious state after he had complained of vomiting. A team of nine doctors attended to him but he died of cardiac arrest, the medical bulletin stated.

Afzal Ansari, who is also the Ghazipur MP, 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 said.

Afzal Ansari 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.

Earlier, Ansari was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain.

Many parties condoled the demise of Ansari and demanded a probe into it.

In a post on X, the Samajwadi Party said, "Sad demise of former MLA Shri Mukhtar Ansari. May his soul rest in peace. May the bereaved family members get the strength to bear this immense loss. Humble tribute".

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former deputy Bihar chief minister Tejashwi Yadav also expressed grief at Ansari's death.

"Got the sad news of the demise of former UP MLA Mukhtar Ansari. We pray to God to grant peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family to bear the loss.

"A few days ago he had complained that he had been poisoned in jail, yet it was not taken seriously. Prima facie this does not seem justifiable and humane. Constitutional institutions should take suo motu cognizance of such strange cases and incidents," Tejashwi Yadav said in a post in Hindi on X.

Former Bihar MP Pappu Yadav, who joined the Congress recently, termed Ansari's death an "institutional murder" and demanded a court-monitored probe into it.

"Former MLA Mukhtar Ansari's institutional murder... It is like burying the law, Constitution, natural justice," Pappu Yadav said in a post in Hindi on X.

The Chief Justice of India should take "suo motu cognizance of this. There should be a court-monitored impartial investigation," the Congress leader said.

"He was making allegations for several days that he was being given slow poison. His MP brother also made this allegation. This is an indelible blot on the country's constitutional system," he added.

Ansari, a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat, was behind bars in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005. He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him.

He was sentenced in eight cases since September 2022 by different courts in Uttar Pradesh and was lodged in the Banda jail. His name was on the list of 66 gangsters issued by Uttar Pradesh Police last year.

Ansari, who hailed from Ghazipur, was believed to have a strong influence in the adjoining Mau and Varanasi districts as well.

The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier approached the Supreme Court to bring Ansari back to the state from Ropar jail in Punjab.

In January 2019, Ansari, then a BSP MLA, was lodged in the Ropar jail in connection with an extortion case and remained there for more than two years.

In March 2021, while hearing a plea of the Uttar Pradesh government, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to hand over Ansari's custody to Uttar Pradesh, saying it was being denied on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues.

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