Mukhtar Ansari's wife moves SC to ensure his safety as UP police escort don from Punjab

The wife of BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking security and protection for her alleged mafia-don husband while he was being shifted from Punjab's Ropar prison to Banda Jail in Uttar Pradesh. The UP and the Punjab governments have involved in many dialogues over the custody of gangster-turned politician Ansari, who also had urged the Apex court to conduct hearings of his cases outside UP.
 
Ansari's wife urged the Supreme Court to pass necessary directions for his security in prison and during the time when he is produced before the courts for hearing. She then also appealed that the trial should be free and fair. On Monday, a UP police team of 150- personnel departed for Punjab, to bring Ansari back to Uttar Pradesh, where he is facing trial in several cases. At the time of publishing the UP police is at the Ropar jail.

In her prayer, Mukhtar Ansari's wife asks the Supreme Court for adequate safeguards and protection for him, to issue directions such that his life is safeguarded while he attends trials in UP, that his shifting is supervised by a magistrate.

Afshan Ansari v. State of U.P. & Ors. - Writ by Republic on Scribd

Excerpts of March 26 Supreme Court hearing over Ansari being shifted to UP

The Supreme Court on March 26 had directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to the Uttar Pradesh Police.  A division bench of the apex court comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy had reserved its order on March 4 after hearing a writ petition filed by the Yogi Adityanath-led government. The BSP MLA was lodged in a UP jail as an undertrial when the Punjab Police obtained a production warrant against him on a complaint of extortion and criminal intimidation and brought him to Punjab.
 
Meanwhile, the court also dismissed Ansari's plea to transfer the criminal cases out of UP. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the state of UP, the state of Punjab, and Ansari respectively. After merging his party Quami Ekta Dal with BSP, Ansari won in the 2017 UP Assembly election on a ticket of the Mayawati-led party.
 
During the hearing, the Solicitor General submitted that Ansari was operating his business from the jail in Punjab. Mentioning that the FIR which led to the legislator's arrest by Punjab Police did not name him specifically, Mehta also contended that the BSP politician was handed over by Banda Jail Superintendent without a direction from the magistrate. "State says that Ansari is suffering from depression. And he says he belongs to a family of freedom fighters. He is a gangster. He is arrested and does not file bail application because he is happy to be in jail of Punjab," Mehta had said.

There are 38 cases lodged against Mukhtar Ansari at Ghazipur police station in UP, along with a few cases in Lucknow and Mau. These include a case filed by the CEO of Homeland Group who had alleged that he received a phone call from a person who had introduced himself as "some Ansari from UP" and had demanded 10 crores. Ansari has been booked under various sections of IPC including Section 386 for extortion, Section 506 for criminal intimidation among others.