Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday raised concerns over the events leading to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death and called on the constitutional institutions to take suo motu cognizance of “such strange cases”.

Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda in Uttar Pradesh days after his brother and Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari had alleged that he was being subjected to “slow poisoning” in jail, a charge denied by the authorities.

Ansari, 63, was a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar and had been behind bars in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005. He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him.

“Sad news was received about the demise of former UP MLA Shri Mukhtar Ansari. We pray to God to grant peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family to bear the loss,” former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav said in Hindi on X.

“A few days ago he had complained that he had been poisoned in jail, yet it was not taken seriously,” Yadav said. “Prima facie, this does not seem justifiable and humane.”

“Constitutional institutions should take suo motu cognizance of such strange cases and incidents,” he added.

All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi echoed similar sentiments as he pointed to the allegations levelled by Ansari’s brother.

Extending condolences to Mukhtar Ansari’s family, Owaisi said, “The people of Ghazipur lost their favourite son and brother.”

“Mukhtar Saheb had made serious allegations against the administration that he was poisoned. Despite this, the government did not pay any attention to his treatment. Condemnable and regrettable,” he added.

According to a medical bulletin, 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, it stated.

Former Bihar MP Pappu Yadav, who joined the Congress recently, termed Ansari’s death an “institutional murder” and demanded a court-monitored probe into it.

“Former MLA Mukhtar Ansari’s institutional murder… It is like burying the law, Constitution, natural justice,” Pappu Yadav said in a post in Hindi on X.

The Chief Justice of India should take “suo motu cognizance of this. There should be a court-monitored impartial investigation,” the Congress leader said.

“He was making allegations for several days that he was being given slow poison. His MP brother also made this allegation. This is an indelible blot on the country’s constitutional system,” he added.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed across the state in the wake of Ansari’s death and teams of the Central Reserve Police Force along with the local police deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi.