UP court orders judicial probe into Mukhtar Ansari's death, seeks report within a month

Lucknow: A chief judicial magistrate's court in Uttar Pradesh's Banda on Friday ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a senior official said.

Banda Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said.

The CJM has sought the probe report within a month. Sixty-three-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.

Afzal Ansari, who is also the Ghazipur MP, on Tuesday alleged that his brother was given slow poison in jail. "Mukhtar said that he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison. And recently, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad," Afzal Ansari had said.

Afzal Ansari had said that during the virtual hearing of a case in a Barabanki court on March 21, Ansari's lawyer had applied to the court alleging that his client had been given "slow poison" in jail due to which his condition was deteriorating. Earlier, Ansari was hospitalised for around 14 hours on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain.

According to the probe order letter, a request was made by the Senior Superintendent, District Jail, Banda on March 28 to nominate an officer for the judicial inquiry into the death of Ansari. Director General of Prisons S N Sabat had earlier told PTI that there would be a judicial inquiry into the matter.