Chandigarh: The Punjab government has started an investigation into the alleged spending of Rs 55 lakh on lawyers by the previous government to keep gangster Mukhtar Ansari in Punjab jail instead of handing him over to Uttar Pradesh to face trial. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, sources said, has given his consent for the investigation into the matter.
Principal Secretary Home Department Anurag Verma has asked DGP Gaurav Yadav to investigate the matter and submit a report within two weeks. The probe will try to find out at the behest of which minister or leader during the previous government lakhs of rupees were allegedly spent on the legal battle to keep Ansari in Punjab.
Also read: Uproar in Punjab over VIP treatment to gangster Ansari in Ropar Jail
Once the report is submitted to the government, action will be taken against the concerned officers and leaders. Ansari was kept in Ropar jail for two years in a case related to allegedly extorting Rs 10 crore from a Mohali builder. After repeated requests by the UP government to its Punjab counterpart to hand over Ansari's custody failed, the gangster-turned-politician was finally sent to UP jail following Supreme Court's intervention.
Punjab Jail Minister Harjot Bains had also raised in the Assembly the issue of the alleged VIP treatment of Mukhtar Ansari in Ropar Jail. Bains alleged that the barrack in which Ansari was kept could accommodate 25 prisoners. Ansari's wife was also allowed to meet him inside the jail.
