NEW DELHI, Mar 29
A day after the death of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari following a cardiac arrest in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district jail, his son Umar Ansari on Friday reportedly wrote to the district magistrate alleging it was “planned murder”.
In the letter, which was widely circulated on social media, Umar claimed his father did not succumb to natural causes but fell victim to a carefully orchestrated plan. He has requested an autopsy by a panel of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, asserting that he has little faith in receiving justice from the local government, administration, or medical team.
According to Umar, both the Barabanki and Banda courts were apprised through lawyers on March 21 that Mukhtar Ansari was administered slow poison in his food. He alleged that a similar poisoning incident had occurred 40 days earlier, which significantly deteriorated his father’s health.
The situation escalated on March 26 when Mukhtar Ansari’s condition deteriorated rapidly, leading to his admission to the Medical College in Banda and subsequently to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at 4 am. Umar alleged that despite being informed of his father’s critical condition, he was denied permission to meet the ailing leader at the hospital. Further, Umar claimed that his father was not provided proper treatment by doctors and was forcibly returned to Banda jail under pressure from the authorities.
Highlighting the gravity of the matter, Umar alleged that his father conveyed to him from the jail’s public call office (PCO) around 3.30 pm on Thursday that he had been poisoned as part of a conspiracy. Umar further conveyed that his father believed that he would not survive the ordeal.
Umar further asserted that neither the jail nor the local administration informed him of his father’s critical condition on Thursday. He learned about the situation through media and upon reaching the Medical College in Banda, he was informed by hospital staff that his father had passed away before arriving at the facility.
Convicted in eight cases in the last two years, 63-year-old Mukhtar Ansari was a five-time MLA from Mau constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
He had a total of 65 cases against him in various police stations in the state and in Delhi.
