High alert across Uttar Pradesh after gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death

High alert across Uttar Pradesh after gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death
Lucknow: Security personnel in several districts of Uttar Pradesh remained on alert on Friday, a day after jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda.

Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed across the state and teams of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) along with the local police have been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said earlier.

People had also started gathering at Mukhtar Ansari’s residence in Ghazipur and there was a large deployment of security personnel around the house. Officials at the police headquarters here said the postmortem will be conducted at the Banda medical college by a panel of doctors and the procedure will be videographed.

The 63-year-old Ansari was brought to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda from the district jail in “an unconscious state” on Thursday evening and died at the hospital following a cardiac arrest, according to its principal Suneel Kaushal.

Family members of Ansari, including his son Umar Ansari, reached Banda early Friday. Umar Ansari alleged that his father was subjected to slow poisoning in jail, a charge denied by authorities.

“My father had told us he was being subjected to ‘slow poison’,” Umar Ansari told reporters and added that the entire country knows about it now. Umar Ansari said they will take the body to Ghazipur for cremation after the postmortem.

The police has already chalked out a route plan for the safe transit of the body via road from Banda to Ghazipur, a distance of around 380 Km. Security has also been stepped up in parts of the state in view of Friday prayers.

Mukhtar Ansari was brought to the medical college around 8.25 pm on Thursday in an unconscious state after he had complained of vomiting. A team of nine doctors attended to him but he died of cardiac arrest, the medical bulletin stated. Afzal Ansari, who is also the Ghazipur MP, on Tuesday alleged that his brother was given slow poison in jail.