Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari.
Credit: PTI Photo
Banda (UP): Five people, including Mukhtar Ansari's MLA son Abbas Ansari, have been booked under the Gangsters Act, police on Wednesday said.
Besides the lawmaker, his driver Niaz Ansari, jail canteen manager Navneet Sachan, Varanasi accountant Shahbaz Alam Khan, and local SP leader Faraz Khan have been named in the FIR lodged at Karvi Police Station on Tuesday, Chitrakoot Superintendent of Police (SP) Arun Kumar Singh told PTI.
The five have been accused of running an extortion racket and intimidating people while Ansari was lodged in Chitrakoot's Ragauli jail.
Ansari is at present lodged in Kasganj jail and the other four are out on bail, the SP said.
The four had earlier been jailed on the charge of allowing Abbas and his wife Nikhat Ansari to meet each other in prison.
Ansari won the 2022 UP assembly elections on the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party ticket from Mau seat.
The party, which is now part of the NDA which rules the Centre, was part of the Samajwadi Party alliance then.