BANDA/LUCKNOW, Mar 29: Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.
Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which bars large gatherings, were imposed across the state and additional security personnel were deployed in the Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts of the state.
Ansari was brought to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda from the district jail in “an unconscious state” and, according to its principal Suneel Kaushal, he died at the hospital following cardiac arrest.
Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari on Tuesday alleged that he was subjected to “slow poisoning” in the jail, a charge denied by the authorities.
Ansari, 63, was a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat and 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.
Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC were imposed across the state and teams of the Central Reserve Police Force along with the local police deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi.
Ansari, who hailed from Mau, was believed to have a strong influence in the adjoining Ghazipur and Varanasi districts as well.
The social media cell of the Uttar Pradesh Police has also been activated to keep a close watch on unlawful elements online, the DGP said.
According to a medical bulletin, 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, it stated.
Officials at Police Headquarters in Lucknow said the postmortem examination of Ansari will be done in Banda and it will be videographed. The viscera will be preserved if needed, they said.
The Samajwadi Party condoled Ansari’s death.
“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,” the party said in a post in Hindi on X.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former deputy Bihar chief minister Tejashwi Yadav expressed grief at Ansari’s death.
“Got the sad news of the demise of former UP MLA Shri 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.
Earlier, Ansari was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain.
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 also 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.
The Uttar Pradesh government had to approach 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 UP government, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to hand over Ansari’s custody to UP, saying it was being denied on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues.
