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Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari dies of cardiac arrest; Section 144 imposed in UP
Public Lokpal
March 29, 2024
Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari dies of cardiac arrest; Section 144 imposed in UP
New Delhi : 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 (CrPC), which bars large gatherings, were imposed across the state and additional security personnel deployed in the Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts.
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 and Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari had on Tuesday alleged that he was being subjected to "slow poisoning" in jail, a charge denied by the authorities.
Ansari (63) was a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar. He had been 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 police chief 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 the police headquarters in Lucknow said Ansari's post-mortem will be done in Banda and it will be videographed. The viscera will be preserved if needed, they said.
Earlier, Ansari was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain.
In January 2019, Ansari, then a BSP MLA, was lodged in Punjab's Ropar jail in connection with an extortion case and remained there for more than two years. The Uttar Pradesh government approached the Supreme Court to bring Ansari back to the state.
PTI
