New Delhi: A team of UP Police leaves from Rupnagar jail with gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, for Banda on

Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Police has taken the custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari at Punjab’s Rupnagar jail to take him to Banda jail on Tuesday.

On March 26th, Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the BSP MLA to jail in UP from Punjab to face trials there.

Fearing for her husband’s life, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s wife, Afshan Ansari approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a direction to the UP Police to “not kill” her husband in a fake encounter and allow him to face a “free and fair trial.”

The Uttar Pradesh government had filed the petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Punjab government and Rupnagar jail authority to immediately hand over the custody of Ansari to the district jail Banda.

Ansari is the sitting Bahujan Samaj Party MLA from Mau Vidhan Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in February, the UP government accused the Punjab government in the Supreme Court, alleging that the latter (Punjab) was colluding with BSP leader Mukhtar Ansari who is wanted in UP in relation to various criminal cases.

On his part, Ansari has apprehended a threat to his life in Uttar Pradesh and sought to appear in cases through video conferencing only.
The Uttar Pradesh government had argued that Ansari is being “vociferously defended by the state of Punjab” and that he is enjoying in the Punjab jail.
The top court had dismissed the plea of Ansari seeking transfer of cases pending against him in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi.
Ansari, MLA from Mau, has been lodged in a Ropar jail in Punjab since January 2019 where he was named in an extortion case. Several production warrants were issued against Ansari but Punjab Police did not allow him to be shifted to Uttar Pradesh on the grounds of ill health.