The Allahabad High Court has instructed the state police to provide ‘full security’ for former MLA Mukhtar Ansari weeks after gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead on live television while being led away by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The court also prohibited journalists from speaking with him.
The Court on May 3 took into consideration the fact that Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were killed on April 15 by three individuals who posed as journalists. The division bench of the court was led by Justices Dr Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Shiv Shanker Prasad.
In response to a petition submitted by Ansari’s wife Afsha Ansari in 2021, the court instructed the concerned officials, including the state director general of police, to give Ansari “full security” while he would be moved from one jail to another and while being produced before any court from that jail and while travelling there or to any other location.
“Media person would not be permitted to interview him. He would be accompanied by police personnel during his ingress and egress from jail,” said the bench. “Though we are not against media taking interview of the accused persons but looking to the recent episode this restriction would be in the interest of the under trial prisoner for their safety and security,” the Court further clarified.
Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead on April 15 while they were being taken to the hospital. The three accused individuals who fired several shots at the duo surrendered immediately before the police present at the spot and were subsequently taken into custody.
Atiq Ahmed was murdered only a few days after Asad Ahmed, his third son was killed by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in an encounter in Jhansi along with his aide Ghulam Muhammad. Both Asad Ahmed and Atiq Ahmed were named as accused in the Umesh Pal murder case.
The court was hearing a petition that Mukhtar’s wife, Afsha Ansari, who is currently missing, had filed in 2021. In her petition, Ansari requested that the court order the state government and other relevant officials “to provide adequate safeguards and protection” to her husband while he is detained or when he appears before any court in the state. Upendra Upadhyay, an attorney, presented the case in court on behalf of Afsha Ansari.
The state government replied in an affidavit saying that “jail authorities and the police are taking every precaution for the security of the petitioner’s husband while keeping him in jail or bringing him outside the jail to produce him before the trial court.”
The state further stated in the affidavit that one inspector, two sub-inspectors, two head constables, eight constables, and two drivers will be employed to provide security when Ansari leaves from custody. The state added that the additional superintendent of police in Ghazipur had been designated as the nodal official responsible for ensuring perfect security while bringing the petitioner’s spouse before the court.
Additionally, the court was told that Ansari has been given “maximum security” in the Banda jail and that “the security has been provided in accordance with the norms and standard provided in Chapter-XXXV of the Jail Manual”.
The jail has a total of 70 CCTVs in place, and both the inspector general of jails and the inspector general of police keep an eye on them.
The bench stated that it requests the UP Director General of Police, who was a respondent in the case, “to ensure the safety of the petitioner’s husband as he is apprehending threat to his life in the jail, where he is incarcerated”
The crime empire of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has crumbled in the last few years but there was a time when he was one of the most dreaded names in the world of crime in Uttar Pradesh. His clout and terror were such that not only police officials but even District Magistrates and politicians feared him.
Political patronage under governments by the BSP and the SP emboldened Mukhtar at his peak. Mukhtar Ansari roamed around freely in open jeeps brandishing guns and weapons, but no one had the courage to stop him. For more than 15 years, he contested and even won elections from jail. This representative of people, booked under scores of cases of ransom, kidnapping, murders, etc., for all these years, has operated his crime syndicate with impunity from jail.
However, with BJP coming to power in the state in 2017 and Yogi Adityanath becoming the chief minister, the crackdown on Mukhtar Ansari intensified. The UP government was quick to bring in a new law aimed at dealing a blow to organised crime networks. Properties worth Rs 192 crore related to Mukhtar and his gang members were either demolished or attached.
Today the same mafia Mukhtar Ansari is lamenting in jail and is living his life in fear. Despite the fact that the court last month sentenced him to ten years in prison in the Krishnanand Rai murder case, there are still numerous cases against him awaiting judgement. The gangster had committed murders in the years 1978, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992. OpIndia has chronicled Mukhtar Ansari’s entire criminal record here.
