Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Former DSP Shailendra Singh alleged on Friday that the Mulayam Singh government had wanted to protect the gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Asnari, who died at a hospital in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday. He also claimed that top-ranking police officials were "pressurised," and he was even made to resign within fifteen days when the Samajwadi Party was in power in the state.
Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "20 years ago, in 2004, Mukhtar Ansari's empire was at its peak. He would move around in open jeeps in areas where curfew was imposed. That time I recovered a light machine gun, no recovery was made before or after that. I even imposed (Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) on him..."
"But the Mulayam government wanted to save him at any cost. He pressurised officials, IG-Range, DIG, and SP-STF were transferred, even I was made to resign within 15 days. But in my resignation, I wrote my reasons and put it before the people that this is the government you chose, which is protecting and working on the orders of mafias... I wasn't doing a favour to anyone. It was my duty...," he added.
Former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), OP Singh, said on Friday the allegations that Mukhtar Ansari was being "poisoned" to death are "absolutely baseless" and the "situation will become clear" after the post-mortem. "Accusing that he was being poisoned is absolutely a baseless allegation. The situation will become absolutely clear after a postmortem is done... Mukhtar Ansari was a criminal, a don, and a mafia, and his death should not be thought of extensively...," Singh told ANI.
Umar Ansari, son of Mukhtar Ansari, had claimed that his father was given poison in the food and said they would move to the judiciary. "Now the whole nation knows everything... Two days ago I came to meet him, but I was not allowed... We said earlier also and even today we will say the same about the allegation of giving slow poison. On March 19, he was poisoned in the dinner. We will move to the judiciary, we have full faith in it..."he said.
Ansari was elected as an MLA from the Mau assembly seat five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He had a strong influence in Ghazipur, his hometown. 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.
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