‘Poisoned’ Mukhtar hospitalised, condition ‘stable’: Bro

Lucknow: Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was admitted to the ICU at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district early Tuesday with a complaint of abdominal pain. His brother and Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari, who reached the hospital, alleged that he was given poison in jail. He told reporters that Mukhtar Ansari is in the intensive care unit (ICU) and is conscious. An official statement of the prison department released in Lucknow said, “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.” According to a medical bulletin issued by the Banda Medical College, “Mukhtar Ansari was admitted there at 3.55 am with a complaint of pain in the abdomen...

The patient is admitted and conservative treatment has started. Patient is stable currently.” Mukhtar Ansari, 60, is a five-time former MLA from Mau Sadar seat and has been behind bars in UP and Punjab since 2005.

He has over 60 criminal cases pending against him. He has been sentenced in eight cases since September 2022 by different courts of UP and was lodged in the Banda jail. His name was on the list of 66 gangsters issued by Uttar Pradesh Police last year. His family members had earlier expressed apprehension that Mukhtar Ansari could be killed in a fake encounter. Afzal Ansari claimed on Tuesday, “Mukhtar said that he was given poisonous food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison.

And recently on March 19 of March 22, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad.” Afzal Ansari said that during the virtual hearing of a case in a Barabanki court on March 21, Mukhtar’s lawyer had filed an application in the court alleging that his client had been given “slow poison” in jail due to which his condition was deteriorating. Mukhtar Ansari’s son Umar Ansari alleged that he was not allowed to meet his father despite his name being on the visitors’ list along with that of his uncle Afzal Ansari.