Mukhtar Ansari’s Punjab jail controversy: Punjab govt issues ₹17.6 L recovery notice to ex-CM, ex-jail minister
The Punjab government’s notice was tweeted by the then jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday night.
Punjab government on Monday issued a ₹17.6 lakh recovery notice to former chief minister Amarinder Singh and Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a day after chief minister Bhagwant Mann said he would recover the amount spent as legal fee for keeping gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in a Punjab jail.
The Punjab government’s notice was tweeted by the then jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday night. Earlier, Randhawa had threatened to file a defamation case against Punjab CM for “character assassination” on twitter.
As per the notice shared by Randhawa, Ansari succeeded to get a concocted FIR registered in January 2019 under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 386 and 506 for demanding extortion through threats and criminal intimidation respectively.
He was then brought to Punjab on production warrant and lodged in Ropad jail on January 24, 2019, where he was till April 6, 2021.
The notice is addressed to Randhawa as well as Punjab’s ex-chief minister Amarinder Singh.
The notice further stated that Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) government moved the Supreme Court to seek Ansari’s transfer. “Both of you engaged a senior advocate to oppose the transfer of Mukthar Ansari even though no public interest or the interest of the state of Punjab was involved. Now, the said senior advocate has raised bills amounting to ₹55 lakh in this regard and an amount of ₹17.60 lakh has become payable to him,” said the notice.
The notice further said, “It is felt that the amount liable to be paid to the said senior advocate should be recovered equally from both of you as you have proposed and approved respectively to engage him as an advocate for this case. You are asked to show cause within 15 days, as to why the amount mentioned should not be recovered from you.”
Ansari, who is presently lodged in U.P.’s Banda jail both as a convict prisoner and an accused in several heinous crime cases registered against him. The U.P. government got Ansari’s custody on the intervention of Supreme Court.
Ansari has been sentenced in at least five criminal cases after been convicted by different courts of U.P. since he was brought back from Punjab, the latest being a life imprisonment sentence awarded to him by the Varanasi MP/MLA court on May 6, 2023. This was after the court held him guilty in the murder of Awadhesh Rai, former Congress MLA Ajay Rai’s elder brother. Awadhesh was murdered 32 years back on August 3, 1991.