UP govt to SC: Punjab ‘vociferously’ defending ‘gangster’ Mukhtar Ansari

Taking critical objection to Punjab not transferring strongman and BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari to face trial in a number of circumstances, the Uttar Pradesh authorities Monday informed the Supreme Court that the Punjab authorities has “vociferously defended” a “dreaded gangster having terror charges” towards him.
Mau MLA Ansari has been lodged in Rupnagar district jail since January 2019 in reference to an alleged extortion case in Punjab. The prime courtroom is listening to a plea filed by UP, searching for route to Rupnagar jail authorities to offer Ansari custody to UP jail authorities in reference to manufacturing warrants issued towards him.
Appearing for UP, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed a bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R S Reddy that the trial in a number of circumstances of heinous crimes involving Ansari has been held up within the state and that Punjab authorities is “supporting a gangster”.

“The state (Punjab) says Mukhtar Ansari is suffering from depression. Ansari says he belongs to a family of freedom fighters. The point is there are several cases of heinous offences lodged against him (in Uttar Pradesh). He is a gangster. He is happy in jail in Punjab,” Mehta informed the courtroom.
He puzzled, “Why should the state of Punjab support Mukhtar Ansari?”
Mehta’s reference was to the affidavit filed by the Punjab jail authorities which claimed that they might not switch him because of his medical situation. The affidavit stated that Ansari has been present process remedy on the jail hospital and at different secondary and tertiary hospitals every now and then since his date of admission to Rupnagar district jail on January 24, 2019.
The UP plea additionally sought a route to switch the proceedings within the Punjab extortion case to a particular courtroom in Allahabad.
In a separate affidavit, Ansari additionally opposed UP’s plea for his custody, saying the state was doing this “merely so that he can be killed when he is brought to the State of UP…there is grave and impending danger to the life of the Respondent in the state of UP under the present political regime”.
Speaking of his credentials, Ansari additionally invoked former Vice-President Hamid Ansari as a member of his broader “family”. His affidavit stated he “is part of a family which has made immense contribution to the Indian freedom movement and has given India many leaders in the form of Shri Muhammad Hamid Ansari who was the Vice President of India, Shri Baba Shaukatullah Ansari who served as the Governor for the state of Odisha, Hon’ble Me Justice Asif Ansari who was the judge of the Hon’ble High Court at Allahabad” and his “own father, late Shri Subhabullah Ansari, who was a freedom fighter and a social worker”.
He added that his maternal grandfather is Martyr Brigadier Usman Ansari who served within the Naushera sector through the 1948 India-Pakistan conflict and was awarded the Mahavir Chakra posthumously.
Ansari stated that because of his political historical past, “there have been multiple attempts on his life by rival political enemies belonging to the ruling government in Uttar Pradesh, on multiple occasions” and due to this fact “his trial ought to be continued through video-conferencing”.
He contended that truthful trial is supposed to guard the pursuits of the accused and it isn’t open for the state to allege that truthful trial requires custodial presence of the accused, albeit on the danger of risk to the lifetime of the individual.

Ansari stated that in 9 out of the ten circumstances cited by UP, he has already been granted permission to look by way of video conferencing, which he has been doing, and that within the tenth case, his software searching for permission to look by way of video conferencing is pending earlier than courtroom.
The bench will hear the matter subsequent on February 24.