“At around 8.25 pm today (Tuesday), the convicted/undertrial prisoner, Mukhtar Ansari, aged 63 years, was brought to the emergency department of the Rani Durgawati Medical College, Banda,” the hospital stated in an announcement issued Thursday night time.
“A team of nine doctors provided the patient with an immediate treatment facility. But despite vigorous efforts, the patient died due to cardiac arrest,” the hospital stated.
After listening to the information, Samajwadi Get together (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav Friday wrote on X, “In all such cases, there should be a probe under the supervision of a justice of the Supreme Court… The government that cannot secure life has no right to stay… This is the zero hour for law and order in UP.”
हर हाल में और हर स्थान पर किसी के जीवन की रक्षा करना सरकार का सबसे पहला दायित्व और कर्तव्य होता है। सरकारों पर निम्नलिखित हालातों में से किसी भी हालात में, किसी बंधक या क़ैदी की मृत्यु होना, न्यायिक प्रक्रिया से लोगों का विश्वास उठा देगा:
– थाने में बंद रहने के दौरान
– जेल के…— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) March 29, 2024
Bahujan Samajwadi Get together (BSP) chief Mayawati additionally referred to “doubts and serious allegations levelled by the family of Mukhtar Ansari” in an X put up, demanding a high-level probe into the reason for dying.
मुख़्तार अंसारी की जेल में हुई मौत को लेकर उनके परिवार द्वारा जो लगातार आशंकायें व गंभीर आरोप लगाए गए हैं उनकी उच्च-स्तरीय जाँच जरूरी, ताकि उनकी मौत के सही तथ्य सामने आ सकें। ऐसे में उनके परिवार का दुःखी होना स्वाभाविक। कुदरत उन्हें इस दुःख को सहन करने की शक्ति दे।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) March 29, 2024
Nonetheless, the media cell of the Directorate Common (prisons) Thursday stated Ansari had a fall in the bathroom in his barrack. The media cell additionally stated the docs in jail handled Ansari first, and a separate docs’ workforce later referred him to the Banda medical faculty.
Ansari’s lawyer Randhir Singh Suman has approached the Barabanki courtroom, demanding an FIR in opposition to the Banda jail administration. Suman’s software requested the courtroom to contemplate Ansari’s letter his dying assertion. The courtroom, which had been listening to a UP-Gangster Act case in opposition to Ansari, Friday sought a report on the dying within the subsequent listening to.
The Banda district Justice of the Peace (DM) has initiated a magisterial probe into the dying underneath the foundations of the 2022 UP jail handbook and appointed Rajesh Kumar, further DM (finance/income), because the investigating officer. Such an inquiry is normally carried out in all custodial deaths.
The Chief Judicial Justice of the Peace courtroom, Banda, has additionally initiated a judicial probe into the dying on the behest of the UP authorities and appointed an extra choose of the courtroom because the inquiry officer. Such inquiries are additionally common in instances of custodial deaths.
Mukhtar Ansari, the elder brother of Member of Parliament (MP) Afzal Ansari, served because the MLA of Mau constituency in Uttar Pradesh (UP) 5 occasions between 1996 and 2022. He had been accused in 65 prison instances and convicted in eight until he died. The homicide of a BJP MLA and a faux arms license case have been among the many distinguished instances through which he was convicted. In 2021, Ansari was introduced from Punjab’s Ropar jail to UP’s Banda jail, the place he remained until the tip.
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What was the 2001 Usri Chatti case
Mukhtar Ansari’s elder brother Afzal, a BSP MP from Ghazipur, is now set to struggle the Lok Sabha election on an SP ticket. After Ansari was dropped at the medical faculty, Afzal advised media individuals Tuesday, “The day of a person’s death is fixed, but the devil can make attempts nonetheless. Several attempts are being made to kill him. It is a conspiracy to ensure that Mukhtar cannot testify in court in the Usri-Chatti case.”
The case is from July 2001, when gunmen attacked the convoy of Ansari, then Mau MLA, when it was passing by way of the Usri Chatti space on the Yusufpur-Kasimabad street. A gang warfare adopted, killing Ansari’s bodyguard and a shooter from the attacker’s facet. One other man, an accused, died of accidents later. Mafia don Brijesh Singh and his buddy Tribhuvan Singh are among the many accused within the case, which is within the final phases of listening to.
Brijesh Singh had gained the 2017 Member of Legislative Council (MLC) ballot from Varanasi-Chandauli-Bhadohi seat when the BJP paved the way in which for his win by not fielding any candidate in opposition to him.
“If Mukhtar testifies in the case, Brijesh Singh (mafia) and Tribhuvan Singh will be jailed,” Afzal stated Tuesday.
Afzal had additionally alleged “a collusion” between the “government, criminals and bureaucrats” behind the makes an attempt to kill Mukhtar. “We are trying to ensure his security through legal ways.”
In line with Afzal, he had tried contacting UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to request him to shift Ansari to Medanta Hospital or some other larger hospital, and that the household was able to bear the remedy prices if the federal government wouldn’t.
Umar Ansari, Mukhtar’s youthful son, advised the media Tuesday, “The main thing is that everything is happening in front of you (the government)… you are giving (Mukhtar) food. When the protector turns devourer, what can we say; only God can save now.”
‘Mukhtar told Afzal about being poisoned twice’
Afzal had additionally stated that he met Ansari Tuesday for a couple of minutes. “He told me that he had been given poison twice. He was poisoned nearly 40 days ago and then again on 19 March,” Afzal stated Tuesday.
Afzal had stated the household might solely hope for consequence “if doctors work independently”.
He added: “A surgeon and two other doctors are treating him. The doctor is a surgeon, though the ailment does not require surgery. If the doctor works independently, we can hope for something; otherwise, everyone knows how people are under pressure.”
On Tuesday, police power, together with Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) corporations, had been deployed outdoors the medical faculty. After Ansari’s dying Thursday, extra police personnel joined in.
A late-night assembly Thursday at UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s residence on Lucknow’s 5 Kalidas Marg Tuesday noticed the presence of UP Director Common of Police Prashant Kumar and Further Director Common of Police (regulation and order) Amitabh Yash, claimed authorities sources. Adityanath, the sources added, directed the highest officers to make sure that no untoward incident escape within the state.
Police sources Thursday stated a panel of 5 docs would conduct a autopsy on Ansari; then a convoy of 26 autos will transport his physique to his residence in Ghazipur.
Heavy police power remained deployed outdoors Ansari’s residence at “Phatak” Muhammadabad. Cops reached the spot and requested the household to pacify the general public gathered on the spot. As slogans of “Mukhtar Ansari Zindabad” have been heard, Mukhtar’s MLA-nephew Suhaib Ansari requested the general public to keep up calm.
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What Ansari wrote in his letter to Barabanki courtroom
In a 21 March 2024 letter to the Barabanki MP/MLA courtroom, Ansari alleged he was poisoned in jail 40 days in the past. The courtroom was listening to a UP-Gangster Act case in opposition to him.
The letter, a replica of which is with ThePrint, claimed that Ansari, the jail staffer who made his meals, and the one that tasted the meals earlier than serving it fell sick that day and obtained remedy.
Ansari additionally wrote that because of the poison, he suffered ache in his fingers and legs, which then turned chilly. He felt he would die, he wrote.
“I am feeling trepidation. Before this, I was healthy,” he had written including that he had obtained a dying menace contained in the Banda jail and any untoward incident might occur.
Demanding correct remedy, Ansari additionally demanded the structure of a medical board for his remedy and instructions to make sure his safety.
After listening to the allegations, the UP authorities 24 March suspended three jail officers, a jailor and two deputy jailors of Banda jail.
SP & RJD elevate questions on Mukhtar’s dying
The SP in addition to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Tejashwi Yadav raised questions concerning the dying whereas providing his condolences to Mukhtar’s household.
“Pray to God to give peace to the departed soul and strength to the grieving family. Some days ago, they complained Mukhtar was given poison inside the jail, but it was not taken seriously… Constitutional bodies should take suo motu cognisance of such strange cases,” Yadav wrote on X.
Retired IPS officer Amitabh Thakur demanded an investigation by a judicial fee led by a sitting Excessive Courtroom choose into the allegations raised by Ansari and his household.
SP chief I.P. Singh has demanded the Supreme Courtroom directed all state governments to beef up the safety of politicians lodged in jails, or else any politician might undergo the identical destiny. Singh additionally demanded that jailed SP chief Azam Khan be shifted to a state not dominated by the BJP, expressing concern that the subsequent conspiracy may very well be hatched in opposition to him. “Today, no citizen’s life is secure in this country,” he wrote on X.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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