Three-member team formed to conduct magisterial investigation into death of Mukhtar Ansari

A chief judicial magistrate's court in Uttar Pradesh's Banda on Friday ordered a judicial inquiry into the death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a senior official said.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): A three-member team will conduct a magisterial investigation into the death of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. The Chief Judicial Magistrate Banda issued orders concerning the judicial probe. Officials said a panel of two doctors will do the post-mortem, which will be videographed.

Mukhtar Ansari's body will be handed over to his son, Umar Ansari, following the post-mortem. Mukhtar Ansari died in a hospital in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday. Umar Ansari told ANI that he has written a letter demanding that the postmortem should be done by doctors at AIIMS, Delhi.

"It (post-mortem) is their procedure. I have written a letter saying that it should be done by doctors at AIIMS Delhi. We don't trust the medical system, government and administration here...You know why I am saying this...Panchnama is done. District Magistrate has to make a decision. Let's see what he decides. The postmortem has not begun...," he said.

"We hope that the court will help investigate the suspicions that we are expressing. We will consult our legal team. We are confident that this is not a natural death but an orchestrated murder," he added.

According to the official release from the hospital, Ansari was brought to the hospital around 8:25 pm on Thursday. A team of nine doctors attended to him before he died, the release added.

Sibgatullah Ansari, Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother, claimed on Friday that the administration did not inform him and he learned about his brother's death through the media.

Speaking to ANI, Sibgatullah said, "I saw it in the media and came to know about it. The administration didn't inform me. He had been very unwell since March 18 and he was not being given any treatment despite raising an alarm again and again. On March 25-26, his health was in a very bad condition, so he was brought to medical college for a few hours as a formality. He was sent back and it was said that he was stable. He was not given any treatment."

On the apprehensions of the family, he said, "It was expressed months ago and was also given in writing to the High Court as well as the Supreme Court but no cognizance was taken."

Earlier, Umar Ansari had claimed that his father was "given poison in the food" and said "they would move the judiciary".

In April 2023, Mukhtar Ansari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP-MLA court. He was sentenced to life in prison on March 13, 2024, in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990.