In the last two years, the Punjab government tried its best to protect gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, who is facing several cases in Uttar Pradesh. A sitting MLA from Muslim-dominated Mau constituency, Ansari is a history-sheeter with almost every section of the Indian Penal Code imposable on him, because he has done it all – murder to extortion.
After the Yogi government came to power, Ansari was languishing in a UP jail and being rightfully treated like a criminal that Mukhtar Ansari is as he helplessly watched the UP government destroy his illegal empire bit by bit, Ansari was transferred to Ropar jail in Punjab after the state police produced a production warrant in early 2019 in connection with an extortion case filed in Mohali.
Since then, multiple efforts by the UP government to bring back Ansari have been thwarted by the Punjab government. Now, the Supreme Court has ordered the Punjab government to handover the custody of Ansari to the UP government.
The Court observed that the Punjab government denied the custody to UP Police every time on “trivial grounds, under the guise of medical grounds by mentioning ordinary diseases like diabetes mellitus, skin allergy, hypertension, backache, throat infection”.
The Court stated that a “convict or an undertrial prisoner, who disobeys the law of the land, cannot oppose his transfer from one prison to another, be a convict or an undertrial prisoner”.
“Courts are not to be a helpless bystander, when the rule of law is being challenged with impunity,” the judges said.
The dreaded gangster would soon be under the custody of the UP government and face trials. Given the multiple cases of murder and many other crimes against him, he would either get a life-time jail sentence or hanged.
The Yogi Adityanath government is destroying Ansari’s illegal empire at a menacing pace as alleged illegal properties worth crores of rupees related to the mafia don in Lucknow, Mau and Ghazipur have been demolished by the state agencies. Earlier in July, the Ghazipur district administration had demolished a godown, built illegally on public land.
The godown was built in place of a pond by M/s Vikas Construction in which Ansari’s wife – Afsa Ansari and his brother-in-law, Aatif Raja besides three others – Zakir Hussain, Ravindra Narayan Singh and Anwar Shahzada are partners, said Ghazipur DM OP Arya.
The godown had been rented out by the gang to the Food Corporation of India. The administration is also said to be probing into irregularities involving Gajal Hotel in Mahubagh locality of Ghazipur, with both the properties registered under the name of Mukhtar Ansari’s wife.
The police also seized properties worth Rs 58.91 lakh of Mukhtar Ansari’s shooter Brijesh Sonkar and arrested seven accomplices of his. Also, properties worth Rs. 39.80 crore has been freed from illegal possession of Ansari’s relatives and 33 weapons have been deposited in different jails so far after their licenses had been suspended.
In August, an illegal slaughterhouse of a close aide of Mukhtar Ansari was also demolished by the Mau district administration with the UP Police issuing a non-bailable warrant against Ansari’s wife Afsa Ansari and her brothers Sharjeel Raza and Anwar Shahzad for allegedly occupying a sealed property illegally in September.
With Ansari set to be handed over to Uttar Pradesh Police, the question must be asked what was the Punjab government and Amarinder Singh’s interest in protecting him? According to few observers, Hamid Ansari, former Vice-president of India, who is a cousin of Mukhtar Ansari and a veteran leader of Congress, was allegedly pulling strings to keep his gangster family member safe in a Punjab jail.