A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur has ordered that Mau MLA Abbas Ansari be given adequate security in the Kasganj district jail where he is lodged and that the food given to him be tested beforehand.
The court mandated continuous CCTV surveillance of Abbas, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari who died of purported heart attack in a prison in Banda last month amid suspicions of foul play.
The legislator, elected on Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) ticket, is in jail since November 2022. He was transferred to Kasganj from a jail in Chitrakoot on the directions of the state government in February last year.
“We had filed an application in the court that those who killed Mukhtar Ansari also wanted to eliminate Abbas. We requested the court to issue directions that the food served to Abbas should be tested under CCTV surveillance. Ansari should be kept under the CCTV round-the-clock. The court on Saturday allowed our application,” said Advocate Liyakat Ali, who represents Abbas in the court.
Abbas, who was brought to Ghazipur under police security to attend his father’s ‘fatiha’ last week, was sent back to the Kasganj jail after the ritual.
A senior government official confirmed that the Ghazipur court issued an order to make proper arrangements of security to Abbas security, food and medicines to Abbas.
“The court also directed that Abbas’s barrack and the visitor’s place in the jail should be under the watch of CCTV,” said the officer.
Liyakat Ali said, “The court order to make proper security arrangements for Abbas is likely to be sent to the Ghazipur jail today.”
A senior jail official, however, denied having received the court order so far.
Mukhtar Ansari’s family had alleged foul play in his death, claiming he was poisoned.
The authorities at the Banda Medical College, where he was taken from the jail, attributed his death to a sudden cardiac arrest.