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Lucknow: The dead body of UP gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who died after suffering a heart attack on March 28, was brought to his residence from Banda for the last rites amid heavy security on Saturday, police said. His body was taken to Ghazipur in the wee hours on Saturday morning, and the funeral is scheduled to take place at around 10 am. Police vehicles accompanied the ambulances carrying the bodies to ensure security on the 400-km-long route that passes through several districts of Uttar Pradesh.
A convoy of 26 vehicles carrying the gangster’s body left for Ghazipur at 5.45 pm after postmortem at the Rani Durgavati Medical College, Banda.
As many as 24 police vehicles along with the ambulance are in the convoy along with two vehicles of Ansari’s family, police said.
As per police officials, Mukhtar Ansari’s son Umar Ansari and Abbas Ansari’s wife and their two cousins were present inside the ambulance carrying the body.
MUKHTAR ANSARI LAST RITES TODAY
After the postmortem at a hospital in Banda, Mukhtar Ansari’s body was brought to his residence, Ghazipur, ahead of the last rites.
He will be buried in a family graveyard in Ghazipur, and security arrangements have been tightened in Ghazipur and surrounding districts, including Mau, where he served as an MLA for five terms.
Mukhtar Ansari’s son, Abbas Ansari, who is currently the MLA from Mau and is lodged in Kasganj jail, has approached the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing of his petition seeking permission to attend his father’s funeral.
The post-mortem on the gangster-politician confirmed that he died of cardiac arrest, according to hospital sources who spoke to sources. The entire autopsy procedure was videographed.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate in Banda issued judicial probe orders into Ansari’s death as his family alleged that he was given slow poison inside the jail. A three-member team will conduct the magisterial investigation.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav demanded a probe supervised by a Supreme Court judge. He said death of a prisoner after falling ill inside the jail “will erode public confidence in the judicial process.
In response to Ansari’s death, the Uttar Pradesh government has taken stringent security measures, including the imposition of Section 144 to prevent any potential unrest. Prohibitory orders have been imposed across Uttar Pradesh and teams of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) along with the local police have been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi.
