E-Paper
Punjab hands over BSP legislator Mukhtar Ansari to UP Police
A 38-member team of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday took gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in its custody from the Rupnagar central jail
A 38-member team of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday took gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in its custody from the Rupnagar central jail.
The move came more than a week after the Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to hand over the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA to UP authorities within a fortnight.
The Mau legislator was taken in an ambulance to the Banda jail under heavy security at 2 pm. The 8-vehicle cavalcade also included a Vajra van. Earlier, a team of doctors conducted medical tests of Ansari, who has been in the Rupnagar jail since January 2019 in connection with an extortion FIR registered by a Mohali-based builder.
The UP cops led by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Satya Prakash reached Rupnagar at 4:30am and remained in the central jail for two hours to complete the formalities.
The Yogi Adityanath-led government in UP had moved the apex court seeking the custody of Ansari, wanted in several criminal cases in the state, after the Punjab government refused to shift him.
Inquiry ordered into
abandoned ambulance
Rupnagar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Akhil Chaudhary ordered a probe into the circumstances under which an ambulance (UP-41-AT-7171) that ferried Ansari from the central jail to a Mohali court on March 31 was found abandoned near a dhaba.
As an FIR of fake registration was registered in Barabanki, a police headed by a DSP had reached Rupnagar to probe the case. The team found that the vehicle was not bullet proof and its chassis number was also the same as registered in UP.
“Our technical team will inspect the vehicle once we reach UP,” DSP Naveen Kumar, who led the team from Barabanki, said.
