‘My father was given slow poison’, alleges Mukhtar Ansari’s son, Umar Ansari

Mukhtar Ansari death: Umar Ansari, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari who died on Thursday following a cardiac arrest, has claimed that his father was slow-poisoned. He said that they would move the judiciary. 

"I was not told anything from the administration side, I came to know about it through the media... But now the whole nation knows everything... Two days ago I came to meet him, but I was not allowed... We said earlier also and even today we will say the same about the allegation of giving slow poison. On March 19, he was poisoned at dinner. We will move to the judiciary, we have full faith in it..." said Umar Ansari, according to news agency, ANI.

He said once the postmortem is done on Friday, and the body handed over to them, they will follow the further process, and reiterated that his father was slow-poisoned. Umar Ansari said that a panel of five doctors was formed for the postmortem. 

Ansari's brother and Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari had also alleged on Tuesday that he was being subjected to "slow poisoning" in jail, a charge denied by the authorities.

Mukhtar Ansari’s body was sent to Banda Medical College in Banda. 

Ansari was brought to the hospital at around 8:25 pm on Thursday, and was attended by a team of nine doctors. Before this, on Tuesday, Ansari complained of abdominal pain and was hospitalised in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda. He was later moved to Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda. 

The politician was elected as an MLA from the Mau assembly seat five times, including twice as a candidate from Bahujan Samaj Party. 

In April 2023, Mukhtar Ansari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP MLA court. On March 13, 2024, he received a life sentence in a case related to forged documents used for obtaining an arms licence in 1990. 

Prior to this, in December 2023, the MP/MLA Court of Varanasi found Ansari guilty of threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the murder of 26-year-old coal businessman Nand Kishor Rungta. He was sentenced to five and a half years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000. 

On October 15, last year, the Enforcement Directorate seized lands, a building and bank deposits totalling over Rs 73.43 lakh as part of a money laundering investigation against Ansari.