Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari dies of cardiac arrest

(FILE PHOTO) Mukhtar Ansari

Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died at the Banda Medical College in Uttar Pradesh on March 28 following a cardiac arrest, the hospital authorities said.

Earlier in the day, Ansari was taken to the hospital after his health deteriorated, his lawyer said. Earlier in the day, Ansari was taken to the hospital after his health deteriorated, his lawyer said.

Meanwhile, people have gathered outside the residence of Ansari in Ghazipur and security has been beefed up around the hospital too.

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: People gathered outside the residence of Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Ghazipur.

Mukhtar Ansari has been admitted to Banda Medical College hospital in Banda after his health deteriorated. pic.twitter.com/WQ0T8LFQGg

— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2024

Earlier, Mukhtar Ansari was shifted from Uttar Pradesh's Rani Durgawati Medical College to jail after his discharge on Tuesday.  Ansari was admitted to a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Banda on Tuesday after he complained of abdominal pain in jail.

Ansari has been elected as an MLA from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He last contested the assembly polls in 2017. Earlier on March 13, Ansari was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990.This was the eighth case in which the former five-time MLA has been convicted and sentenced by a court in Uttar Pradesh in the past two years.

Before this, in December 2023, the MP/MLA Court of Varanasi had found Mukhtar Ansari guilty of threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the murder of 26-year-old coal businessman Nand Kishor Rungta, and had sentenced him to five and a half years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 against him. On October 15, last year, the Enforcement Directorate attached lands, a building and bank deposits worth more than Rs 73.43 lakh as part of the money laundering investigation against Mukhtar Ansari.

(With agency inputs)