Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has died of a cardiac arrest after being hospitalised on Thursday night. The five-time former MLA from Mau in Uttar Pradesh had been in jail within the state and in Punjab since 2005. 

A medical bulletin mentioned the 63-year-old, who was lodged in a jail in UP’s Banda, had been taken to the Rani Durgavati Medical College within the district by jail authorities in an unconscious state round 8.25 pm on Thursday after complaining of vomiting. 

“The patient was provided immediate medical care by a team of nine doctors. But, despite their best efforts, the patient died due to a cardiac arrest,” the bulletin, which was in Hindi, mentioned. 

A big crew of police personnel had been deployed exterior the hospital shortly after Ansari was taken there and prohibitory orders beneath Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been imposed throughout Uttar Pradesh following his dying, information company PTI reported. 

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar mentioned further police personnel in addition to Central Reserve Police Force groups have additionally been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts.

Earlier Hospitalisation

Ansari had additionally been hospitalised within the early hours of Tuesday and discharged after almost 14 hours. His brother, Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari, had then claimed that the gangster-turned-politician was being given a “poisonous substance” in jail.

“Mukhtar said that he was given a poisonous substance in his food in jail. This happened for the second time. He was given poison around 40 days ago as well. And, recently, on March 19 or March 22, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition is bad,” Afzal Ansari had been quoted as saying by PTI. 

The jail division had, nonetheless, mentioned Ansari’s well being had deteriorated and he had fallen within the washroom earlier than being taken to the hospital round 3.45 am on Tuesday.  

“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,” an announcement by the jail administration had mentioned. 

61 Criminal Cases

Ansari, a resident of Mau, had 61 legal instances in opposition to him, of which 15 had been on homicide costs. He had joined a gang within the Eighties after which fashioned his personal within the Nineties. The gang was concerned in extortion and kidnapping within the Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur districts.

In 2004, he was charged beneath the now-scrapped Prevention of Terrorism Act after a machine gun was discovered from his hideout and had been in jail for the reason that yr after that. In April 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years for the homicide of BJP MLA Krisnanand Rai and, on March 13 this yr, he had been given a life time period in a pretend gun licence case from 1990.

Of the 5 occasions Ansari was elected as an MLA from Mau, two had been on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.

In a publish on X, the Samajwadi Party has condoled his dying.