A file image of Mukhtar Ansari being produced in a Mohali court on March 31, 2021.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: Grandson of an Army officer and five time MLA, Muhtar Ansari, who died at a hospital in Banda town reportedly following a cardiac arrest inside the district jail on Thursday, ruled the world of crime in the eastern UP region for more than three decades.
Despite being lodged in the jail for the past 13 years, Ansari, who faced 63 cases, including those of murder, extortion, kidnapping and others, dictated terms to the politicians even from behind the bars and influenced the electoral politics in several districts, especially in Ghazipur and Mau.
Ansari first entered the UP Assembly in 1996 after winning the election from Mau seat in 1996 on the BSP ticket. He later switched loyalty to the Samajwadi Party (SP). He had won twice as an independent candidate and also unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha poll from Varanasi seat in 2009.
He had also helped his brother Afzal Ansari in winning the Ghazipur LS seat and was instrumental in ensuring victory for his son Abbas Ansari in the 2022 Assembly polls.
Such was the influence of his terror in Mau that he won Assembly polls from there three times while being lodged in the jail.
The first case of murder was lodged against Ansari in 1986. In the past 17 months, Ansari was convicted in seven cases, including the one in which he was accused of killing Awadhesh Rai in Varanasi. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case under the Arms Act. He was also charged in the killing of BJP leader Mrishnanad Rai in 2005.
Ansari writ ran large in Mau and during the communal riots in the communally sensitive town in 2005, a picture of Ansari speeding past in the narrow lanes and roads of the town in an open jeep carrying a rifle had hogged the limelight in the media.
His death also triggered a massive controversy after his son Umar Ansari alleged that his father was being given ''slow poison'' in the jail. Mukhtar had also, in a letter to the court through his lawyer, alleged that he was given food laced with poison in jail on March 19.
A judicial probe was ordered into the circumstances leading to his death. Chief judicial magistrate, MP/MLA Court Garima Singh would investigate the matter and submit her report in one month.
Mukhtar's lawyer has filed a petition in the court seeking registration of a murder case against the Banda district jail officials. His postmortem report said that the death was owing to cardiac arrest.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav has demanded a probe into Ansari's death by a supreme court judge. The BJP, however, slammed the SP and asked the party to come clean on its relations with the gangster turned politician.