Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari on Thursday, 28 March, passed away after suffering from a cardiac arrest. Ansari had been admitted to Rani Durgavati Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Banda after his health reportedly deteriorated.
According to a health bulletin, the 63-year-old complained of vomiting and was taken to the hospital in an unconscious condition from a prison in Banda by jail authorities at around 8:25 PM on Thursday.
"The patient was provided immediate medical care by a team of nine doctors. But, despite their best efforts, the patient died due to a cardiac arrest," the bulletin read, as per NDTV.
A day after Ansari's death, his son Umar Ansari penned a letter to the district magistrate of Banda, demanding that a post-mortem be conducted by doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. Umar's letter further read that he didn't trust the medical system in Banda.
Meanwhile, security outside the hospital was beefed up following Ansari's hospitalisation. Section 144 of the CrPC has also been imposed in UP after his death, news agency PTI reported.
Ansari has been behind bars in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh since 2005. He had been sentenced to life in prison on 13 March, in connection with a 1990 arms case.
Despite having over 60 criminal cases against him, Ansari has been elected as an MLA from Mau district in Uttar Pradesh.
While he won the seat from Mau for the first time on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, Ansari contested and won in subsequent Assembly polls as an independent candidate and formed the Quami Ekta Dal (QED) regional party in 2010 along with his brothers, as per reports.
(With inputs from PTI and NDTV.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)