Umar Ansari, son of late gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari alleged before the Supreme Court on Monday that his father was poisoned in jail and died due to the withholding of requisite medical treatment.
The matter was heard by a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti, which, upon hearing Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (representing Umar Ansari), issued a notice on an application seeking modification of the prayer made in the main writ petition. The main writ petition, filed in 2023, sought Mukhtar Ansari’s transfer from the Uttar Pradesh jail where he was lodged, fearing for his safety.
Claims and Reactions
Senior advocate Sibal submitted, “All we can say is…what we feared, happened…the man was sent back to jail…this is very very shocking.” Justice Roy responded, “We can’t bring him back, Mr. Sibal…you know that very well…you were apprehending an encounter sort of a situation…”
Sibal then requested an inquiry, asserting that Mukhtar Ansari was sent back to jail and died in the ICU.
Sibal further alleged that the food provided to Mukhtar Ansari in jail was poisoned, which he claimed caused his death.
Government’s Response
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj argued that the petition was initially filed for a limited purpose (seeking transfer and protection of Mukhtar Ansari). Nonetheless, he requested and was granted four weeks to file a response to the application seeking modification.
After hearing the arguments, the court issued a notice on Umar Ansari’s application. It recorded Sibal’s submission that Mukhtar Ansari was “denied requisite medical treatment in the jail,” which, according to his son, “led to death in custody.” The bench also recorded in the order, as requested by Sibal, that “according to the senior counsel, it was not a death simpliciter, but was the result of specific action taken by the jail authorities.”
The Case
Mukhtar Ansari was an accused in the case involving the murder of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai, among other cases. In 2021, the Supreme Court allowed a petition filed by the State of UP to transfer him from a jail in Punjab to a jail in UP.
In 2023, Umar Ansari filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, seeking Mukhtar Ansari’s transfer to any jail outside Uttar Pradesh.
The petition alleged that his family members had been persecuted by the State and that reliable information indicated a conspiracy involving state establishment members to assassinate him in Banda jail. The plea highlighted that, among all persons accused in the murder, four had already been murdered: 1) Shahnawaz, an undertrial killed in December 2019 while being produced before court; 2) Atiq Ahmed and his brother Khalid Azim, shot dead in April 2023 while being escorted by police officers for a routine medical check-up; 3) Meraj Ahmad, a co-accused with Ansari in a case under MCOCA, shot dead in May 2021 inside a high-security barrack of Chitrakoot District Jail, UP.
In contrast, the state of Uttar Pradesh maintained that no harm would come to Mukhtar Ansari in jail. On March 28, 2024, Mukhtar Ansari reportedly died of a cardiac arrest while serving a life sentence.
