Wife of Uttar Pradesh Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), Mukhtar Ansari has approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Uttar Pradesh Police and jail authorities to ensure that Ansari gets a “free and fair trial” in the criminal charges against him and does not end up being killed in a fake encounter.
Afshan Ansari in her plea filed through Advocate-on-Record Parul Shukla has cited an imminent threat to Ansari’s life. The plea urged the top court to grant security and protection to her husband while he is shifted to Banda jail, lodged there and produced before the judge.
The petition detailed various attempts to eliminate Ansari over the years and also highlighted various threats meted out to him. It further alleged that Brajesh Singh, a mafia don who is part of the govt and highly influential in UP, is conspiring to kill Ansari with State aid and support.
Background
Ansari an MLA from Mau Sadar seat was initially lodged in a jail in UP as undertrial when the Punjab Police obtained production warrant against him on a complaint of extortion and criminal intimidation and brought him to Punjab. He was lodged in Ropar jail in Punjab when the UP government moved Supreme Court for his transfer back to UP.
A Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy had on March 26 allowed the plea and ordered that Ansari be handed over to UP and lodged in Banda jail.
Subsequently, a 150-member team of UP Police had on Monday left for Punjab to bring back the gangster-turned-politician who is facing trial in several cases.
According to the UP Police, Ansari is facing 52 cases in the state and elsewhere, and 15 of them are in the trial stage. Ansari has been lodged in Rupnagar prison since January 2019 in connection with an extortion case.
The police have, till now, arrested 96 criminals and seized, freed, or demolished property worth Rs 192 crore linked to the BSP MLA and his associates.
