Mukhtar Ansari's ambulance found abandoned; 50-strong UP Police team leaves to escort him

An ambulance used to ferry gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to a Mohali court was found abandoned near a roadside eatery on the Chandigarh-Nangal highway in Punjab's Rupnagar district, police said on Sunday. Rupnagar Deputy Superintendent of Police TS Gill said the vehicle has been taken into custody. The police said they received information about the ambulance bearing a registration number of UP lying abandoned on the roadside.

Mukhtar Ansari, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA from Mau who is wanted in Uttar Pradesh for various crimes, was ferried in the ambulance from the Rupnagar jail to a Mohali court in connection with a 2019 case of extortion.

Amid tight security arrangements, Ansari was taken to the court in a wheelchair on March 31. After the court appearance, he was sent back to the Rupnagar jail, where he is lodged since January 2019. A case was registered in UPs Barabanki after the documents of the registration number of the ambulance were found to be fake, the police had said.

After the incident snowballed into a controversy, a Punjab police official clarified that a jail inmate can be ferried in a private ambulance on medical grounds and the cost of transportation has to be borne by the prisoner. According to the Punjab Prisoners (Attendance in Court) Rules, 1969, police can allow a private vehicle on the prisoner's request, the official had said.

Supreme Court orders Ansari's transfer

The Supreme Court recently directed the Punjab government to hand over Mukhtar Ansari's custody to the Uttar Pradesh police, ruling that the transfer was being denied on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues. The top court had also said a convict or an undertrial prisoner, cannot oppose his transfer from one prison to another and the courts cannot remain, helpless bystanders when the rule of law is being challenged with impunity

UP Police leaves to escort Mukhtar Ansari

The court ordered the Punjab government to hand over Mukhtar Ansari's custody to the UP police within two weeks, to lodge him in the Banda district jail. The Banda team consisting of over 50 police personnel is all set to bring Ansari back to Uttar Pradesh. An ambulance along with eight police vehicles has departed from Banda to escort the gangster-politician. On Sunday night, it was decided that the team, headed by a deputy SP, would pick Ansari from the Ropar jail in Punjab. 

(With inputs from agency)

(Image inputs from PTI)