150-Member UP Police Team Heads To Punjab To Bring Back Mukhtar Ansari

Senior police officials said a 150-member team, including a company of the Provincial Armed Constabulary, equipped with sophisticated weapons left from Banda on Monday morning to bring back Ansari from Punjab.

A 150-member team of the Uttar Pradesh Police headed to Punjab on Monday to bring back jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who is facing trial in over a dozen cases, even as his family said they will move the court for ensuring his security in prison as a "conspiracy" may be hatched against him. Punjab's home department had asked the UP authorities to take custody of Ansari, BSP MLA from Mau, at the Rupnagar jail on or before April 8 following a March 26 Supreme Court order, on the UP government's plea, to transfer him to Banda prison within two weeks. Senior police officials said a 150-member team, including a company of the Provincial Armed Constabulary, equipped with sophisticated weapons left from Banda on Monday morning to bring back Ansari from Punjab. "The process of eliminating the mafia has begun," Uttar Pradesh minister Sidharth Nath Singh told reporters and alleged that the Punjab Government made every effort to stall the handover of Ansari but it had to "bow before the commitment" of the Yogi Adityanath government.