Prohibitory orders have been imposed across Uttar Pradesh.
Jailed gangster and politician Mukhtar Ansari has died of cardiac arrest after being hospitalized earlier in the day. The five-time former MLA from Mau in Uttar Pradesh was in jail in the state and Punjab since 2005.
According to a medical bulletin, the 63-year-old, who was lodged in a jail in UP’s Banda, was brought to Rani Durgavati Medical College in the district by the jail authorities in an unconscious condition around 8.25 pm on Thursday after he complained of vomiting.
“The patient received immediate medical attention from a team of nine doctors. But despite their efforts, the patient died due to cardiac arrest,” said the bulletin, which was in Hindi.
Soon after Ansari was taken there, a large team of police personnel was deployed outside the hospital. Following his death, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) have been imposed across Uttar Pradesh, news agency PTI reported.
Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said additional police personnel and Central Reserve Police Force teams have also been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts.
Ansari was also admitted to hospital in the early hours of Tuesday and discharged after almost 14 hours. His brother, Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari, had subsequently alleged that the gangster-turned-politician was given a ‘poisonous substance’ in jail.
“Mukhtar said he was given a poisonous substance in his food in prison. This happened for the second time. He was also given poison about 40 days ago. And recently, on March 19 or 22, he got this again. (poison) due to which his condition is bad,” Afzal Ansari told PTI.
However, the prison department had said that Ansari’s health had deteriorated and he had fallen in the washroom before being taken to the hospital around 3.45 am on Tuesday. “Due to the sudden deterioration of prisoner Mukhtar Ansari’s health and the fact that he fell into the toilet at night, he was immediately treated by the prison doctor. After informing the district administration, a team of doctors was called through which the prisoner was referred to the medical college on the night itself,” said a statement from the prison management.