Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died on Thursday, 28th March, after his health deteriorated in jail. Ansari was shifted to Banda Medical College Hospital in Banda after he complained about pain in the abdomen. As per the hospital, Ansari died during treatment after suffering a heart attack.
He was admitted to the ICU after the hospitalisation. However, as his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to CCU. The hospital said that a team of 9 doctors were attending him. However, Mukhtar Ansari died during the treatment in hospital.
According to a bulletin issued by the Rani Durgavati Medical College, 63-year-old Ansari was brought to the hospital by jail authorities and admitted to the emergency department after he had complained of vomiting. He was unconscious when he arrived in the hospital. A team of 9 doctors were involved in his treatment. But despite all the efforts, Ansari passed away as a result of cardiac arrest, the bulletin said.
This is the second time within two days when he was taken to the hospital. Earlier on Tuesday he was hospitalised for around 14 hours in Banda after he complained of abdominal pain. He was discharged on Tuesday and taken back to the jail.
After he was hospitalised last time, Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari had alleged that Mukhtar Ansari was poisoned in jail by a substance mixed in food. “Mukhtar said that he was given poisonous a 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 of March 22, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad,” Afzal, an MP from Ghazipur, had said.
Mukhtar Ansari has been behind bars in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh since 2005. The 60-year-old don-turned-politician 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.
Mukhtar Ansari – born on 30th June 1963 – was a mafia don who had become a synonym for terror in the entire Uttar Pradesh in the 70s and 80s. Later he entered politics and won assembly elections from Mau five consecutive times. He had even contested and won elections from jail.
A detailed history of the mafia, his rise in crime and politics, and the eventual downfall under the Yogi Adityanath government can be read here.
