Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of a cardiac arrest at the Banda medical college in Uttar Pradesh, shortly after being hospitalised on Thursday evening. Ansari had been lodged in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda jail.

According to a medical bulletin, Ansari was taken to the Rani Durgavati medical college in an unconscious state around 8:25 pm as his health was “critical”. “A team of nine doctors attended him but despite all their best efforts, the patient passed away following the cardiac arrest,” the bulletin read in Hindi.

Mukhtar Ansari was ‘slow-poisoned’ in jail?

A few days ago, Ansari’s family members alleged that the 63-year-old was being “slow-poisoned” by a substance mixed in food given to him in the Banda jail. This claim came after Ansari was admitted to the medical college after he complained of abdominal pain and was unable to pass stool for four consecutive days. During that time, he was discharged after 14 hours and sent back to Banda jail.

Ansari’s brother and an MP from Ghazipur Afzal, on March 26 said, “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 on March 19 and March 22, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad.”

Earlier, Ansari’s family had also expressed apprehension that he could be killed in a fake encounter.

UP prison department issued statement

Following the family’s claim, the Uttar Pradesh prison department issued a statement on March 26 saying that after the gangster-turned-politician fell in the toilet at night, he was immediately provided with treatment by the jail doctor.

“Due to the sudden deterioration in the health of prisoner Mukhtar Ansari and falling in the toilet in the night, he was immediately given treatment by the jail doctor. After informing the district administration, a team of doctors was called by which the prisoner was referred to the medical college in the night itself. The prisoner was admitted to Medical College Banda under police protection where he is undergoing treatment,” the statement read.

Ansari has been behind bars in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh since 2005. He had 63 cases of land grabbing, extortion and murder on him and his name was also on the list of 66 gangsters issued by Uttar Pradesh Police last year. Ansari was sentenced in eight cases since September 2022 by different courts of UP and was lodged in the Banda jail.

Last year, Ansari also sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by Ghazipur’s MP-MLA court along with a fine of ₹5 lakh for the kidnapping and murder case of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai. Meanwhile, on March 13, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms license in 1990.

Following his death, prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) – which bars large gatherings – have been imposed across Uttar Pradesh, state Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said. A special deployment of police personnel in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts has also been done, he added.