Mukhtar Ansari's death: Judicial inquiry ordered into Mukhtar Ansari's death, son said- 'Death is not natural'!

pc: India TV Hindi

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Banda, UP ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari. A three-member team will conduct a magisterial inquiry into the death. The gangster-turned-politician died of a heart attack in a hospital in Banda, Uttar Pradesh.

His son Omar Ansari has claimed that Mukhtar Ansari was given slow poison in jail. "My father had told us that he was being given 'slow poison'," Omar Ansari told reporters, adding that now the entire country knew about it. Mukhtar Ansari's brother and Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari had also alleged on Tuesday that he was being given "slow poison" in jail.

The authorities have rejected the allegation.

For those unaware, Mukhtar Ansari was brought from the district jail to Banda's Rani Durgavati Medical College in an ''unconscious state'' and, according to its principal Sunil Kaushal, died at the hospital following a cardiac arrest on Thursday.

63-year-old Mukhtar Ansari was a five-time MLA from Sadar. He has been behind bars in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005. More than 60 criminal cases were pending against him.

Mukhtar Ansari was sentenced by various courts of Uttar Pradesh in eight cases since September 2022 and was lodged in Banda jail. His name was on the list of 66 gangsters released by Uttar Pradesh Police last year.

Officials at the police headquarters in Lucknow said Ansari's post-mortem would be conducted in Banda and would be videographed. He said the viscera would be preserved if needed.

Earlier, Ansari was admitted to the hospital for about 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of stomach pain.