Mukhtar Ansari has been unwell for the past two years, his brother claimed (File)
Barabanki:
A case has been registered in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki after the documents of an ambulance with UP registration number, used to transport gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to a Mohali court, were found to be fake, officials said on Friday.
The BSP MLA from UP’s Mau, who is wanted in Uttar Pradesh for various cases, was on March 31 produced before a Mohali court in connection with an alleged 2019 extortion matter.
Amid tight security arrangements, Mukhtar Ansari was taken to court in a wheelchair. He was sent back to Punjab’s Rupnagar jail in an ambulance after the appearance.
“After an initial probe, the name and address given for the registration of the ambulance were found to be fake. An FIR in this regard has been registered by an additional road transport officer against Dr Alka Rai, whose name was given for the registration of the ambulance,” a senior police official said.
The FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for “forgery”, “fraudulently or dishonestly using documents as genuine”, “forgery of valuable security” and “forgery for purpose of cheating”.
Superintendent of Police, Yamuna Prasad said acting on media reports that Mukhtar Ansari was produced before a Punjab court in an ambulance with the registration number of Barabanki, police teams probed the matter and found that documents such as PAN, electoral photo identity card and others were fake.
The address on which these documents were made was also found to be wrong, he said.
The Supreme Court had recently directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of Mukhtar Ansari to the Uttar Pradesh Police, saying it was being denied on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues.
The top court had also said that a convict or an undertrial prisoner, who disobeys the law of the land, cannot oppose his transfer from one prison to another and the courts are not to be a helpless bystander when the rule of law is being challenged with impunity.
The court had said the custody of Ansari be handed over to Uttar Pradesh within two weeks so as to lodge him in the state’s Banda district jail.
The top court had also noted that Ansari was allegedly involved in various cases of attempt to murder, murder, cheating and conspiracy apart from offences under the Gangsters Act, lodged in Uttar Pradesh and out of them, 10 cases are in trial stages.
Mukhtar Ansari’s wife has written to President Ram Nath Kovind, expressing fears that he might be killed in a fake encounter while being transferred from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh following Supreme Court’s direction.
His brother, BSP MP from Ghazipur, Afzal Ansari told news agency PTI, “To divert attention from the life threat to Mukhtar, BJP government is making wheelchair and ambulance an issue.”
“If the BJP is making Mukhtar Ansari (2022) election agenda, we and our supporters will also make vindictive action of the government against the family an issue,” he said.
Asserting that Mukhtar Ansari has been unwell for the past two years, his brother said that if there is any shortcoming in the documents of the ambulance, a fine could be imposed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)