The UP police are all set to get the custody of notorious criminal Mukhtar Ansari after the Punjab government recently asked it to take his custody before April 8. A team of Uttar Pradesh Police headed by Prayagraj ADG is on its way to Punjab to bring back the former Vice President Hamid Ansari’s nephew.
The apex court had last month ordered Ansari’s transfer from Ropar Jail in Punjab to Uttar Pradesh’s Banda Jail. Preparations are underway at the Banda Jail which is being turned into a fortress with tight security to house Mukhtar Ansari.
A team of Uttar Pradesh Police leaves from Banda to bring back gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari from Rupnagar Jail in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/LB4tRdSvQK
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 5, 2021
A special team led by Prayagraj zone ADG Prem Prakash is entrusted with the task of bringing Mukhtar Ansari from Punjab to UP. A contingent of over 50 police personnel is on its way to bring Ansari back to Uttar Pradesh. An ambulance along with eight police vehicles has also departed from Banda to escort the gangster-politician.
ADG Prem Prakash is well known in UP Police circles for being an “encounter specialist” and being strict in dealing with criminals. ANI had shared images of UP Police vehicles where an ambulance, a van and some specialised vehicles were visible.
Ansari’s wife demands additional security fearing “fake encounter”
However, the wife of jailed don had expressed apprehensions over Ansari’s transfer to Uttar Pradesh. She has written a letter to the President, demanding additional security for her husband as she fears he would be killed in a ‘fake encounter’.
Afshan Ansari said she fears that her husband might be killed “under the pretext of an encounter” during his transfer from Ropar jail in Punjab to Uttar Pradesh’s Banda prison.
In her letter, Afsan Ansari claimed that her husband is an eyewitness in a case and the accused BJP MLC is threatening to kill him in connivance with the government machinery.
Ambulance that ferried Ansari was found abandoned in Punjab
Meanwhile, in another update in the case, an ambulance that was used to ferry gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to a Mohali court was found abandoned near a roadside eatery on the Chandigarh-Nangal highway in Punjab’s Rupnagar district. The police said they had taken the abandoned ambulance bearing a registration number of the Uttar Pradesh government into custody.
Ansari, wanted in UP for various crimes, was ferried in the ambulance from the Rupnagar jail to a Mohali court in connection with a 2019 case of extortion.
Ansari was subsequently taken to the court in a wheelchair. He was sent back to the Rupnagar jail, where he is lodged since January 2019, in the ambulance after the court appearance.
A case was filed in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki as the documents of the ambulance were found to be fake.
Mukhtar Ansari, a dreaded gangster accused in dozens ofcases
Ansari has several criminal cases pending against him. A history-sheeter, Ansari is the BSP MLA from UP’s Mau constituency. He has been charged for extortion (Section 386 of the Indian Penal Code) and criminal intimidation (Section 506 of the IPC) on the complaint of the CEO of Homeland Group, who had alleged that he got a call from a person who introduced himself as “ some Ansari from UP” and demanded 10 crores if he didn’t want his family to suffer.
About 38 cases are lodged against Ansari at the various police stations in Ghazipur, Lucknow and Mao. He is also accused of the murder of BJP MLA Krishna Nanda Rai, whose wife and BJP MLA Alka Rai had penned a heart-rending letter to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, accusing the Congress government in Punjab of helping Ansari evade court proceedings.
The UP government has been cracking down on Ansari’s illegal empire, demolishing illegal buildings on encroached lands and arresting his accomplices.
