Tanvi Sinha
Uttar Pradesh government on Monday alleged to the Supreme Court that the Punjabi government was aiding and sheltering ex-politician Mukhtar Ansari who has been accused in several heinous crimes in the state of UP.
The man has been in Punjab jail over what the UP government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, called a “minor case”. Mehta stated that Ansari is apparently receiving five star treatment in Punjab jail.
The Supreme Court bench comprising of a two-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy, heard the matter with the SG claiming that Ansari was being strongly defended by the Punjab government.
The Uttar Pradesh government has moved the top court to get Ansari to be transferred to a jail in the state so that he can be judged against the crimes he has been accused of in Uttar Pradesh.
The UP govt. even stated that Ansari has never asked for bail from his Punjab cell, precisely because he had no issues with his Punjab cell. Furthermore, they stated that the FIR against him in Punjab was a strategy to shield him from the law in Uttar Pradesh.
The jail holding him in Punjab, Ropar Jail, has refused to hand him over citing medical reasons with the government claiming the man has depression.
Mehta stated that the Punjab government was complicit in helping a gangster escape justice, telling senior advocate Dushyant Dave for the Punjab government that he was supporting Ansari. Mehta said that the respondent (Punjab) had made a mockery of the Constitution.
In Uttar Pradesh, Ansari faces a total of 30 FIRs including crimes like murder in various MP/MLA courts which have been unable to continue owing to him not being personally available in these courts.
Slamming the Punjab government, UP claimed that they had not even pushed for investigation much less go for a judicial trial in the case that the accused was arrested and jailed on in Punjab in January 2019.
Ansari was a BSP politician before he was ousted from the party in 2010, following the party realising he was involved in criminal activities but later re-joined in 2017 and is currently a Member of Legislative Assembly for Mau.
He was also the prime accused in the murder of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai but was exonerated of all charges in 2019.