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

A medical bulletin said the 63-year-old, who was lodged in a jail in UP’s Banda, had been taken to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in the district by jail authorities in an unconscious state around 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, said. 

A large team of police personnel had been deployed outside the hospital shortly after Ansari was taken there and prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been imposed across Uttar Pradesh following his death, news agency PTI reported. 

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said additional police personnel as well as Central Reserve Police Force teams have also been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts.

Earlier Hospitalisation

Ansari had also been hospitalised in the early hours of Tuesday and discharged after nearly 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 prison department had, however, said 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 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,” a statement by the prison administration had said. 

61 Criminal Cases

Ansari, a resident of Mau, had 61 criminal cases against him, of which 15 were on murder charges. He had joined a gang in the 1980s and then formed his own in the 1990s. The gang was involved in extortion and kidnapping in the Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur districts.

In 2004, he was charged under the now-scrapped Prevention of Terrorism Act after a machine gun was found from his hideout and had been in jail since the year after that. In April 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years for the murder of BJP MLA Krisnanand Rai and, on March 13 this year, he had been given a life term in a fake gun licence case from 1990.

Of the five times Ansari was elected as an MLA from Mau, two were on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.

In a post on X, the Samajwadi Party has condoled his death.