Mukhtar Ansari death: 'Holi for us', Krishnanand Rai's wife whose ...

While speaking to news agency ANI, she said, “What can I say? This is the blessing of the Almighty. I used to pray to him for justice and it has been served today"

She added they never celebrated Holi after her husband's death. “We never celebrated Holi after the incident (the murder), I felt that today is Holi for us."

"What is there to see? It is a day of happiness for those children who were orphaned because a criminal has been removed from the earth," she added.

Alka Rai also spoke on opposing parties raising questions about Ansari's death, she said, "It is a wrong thing."

Krishnanand Rai's son Piyush Rai said, “My mother and I have received the blessings of Baba Vishwanath and Baba Gorakhnath."

Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati said on Friday that the serious allegations by Mukhtar Ansari's family regarding his death in jail require a "high-level investigation" so that the facts related to his death "can be revealed." In a post on X, she wrote, “The persistent apprehensions and serious allegations made by Mukhtar Ansari's family regarding his death in jail require a high-level investigation so that the true facts of his death can be revealed. In such a situation, it is natural for his family to be sad. May nature give them the strength to bear this sorrow."

Ansari's brother and an MP from Ghazipur Afzal told the media, “Mukhtar said that he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison. And recently on March 19 and March 22, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition deteriorated."

Ansari, 63, served as an MLA for the Uttar Pradesh constituency of Mau Sadar five times, including twice as a candidate for the Bahujan Samaj Party. In his home town of Ghazipur, he had a great influence. Since 2005, he has been incarcerated in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Ansari was the subject of more than sixty active criminal cases. In September 2022, he was sentenced in eight cases by different courts in Uttar Pradesh and was lodged in the Banda jail. In 2023, Ansari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP MLA court. He was sentenced to life in prison on March 13, 2024, in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened in several districts of Uttar Pradesh a day after jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda. Director General of Police for Uttar Pradesh Prashant Kumar earlier stated that prohibitive orders under section 144 of the CrPC have also been imposed throughout the state and that teams of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur, and Varanasi in addition to the local police.

Speaking on the security arrangement, Ghazipur SP Omvir Singh said, "Ever since the news broke out Ghazipur Police and Administration have been on alert. There is adequate Police deployment across the district...MCC is in place and there is no crowd anywhere. People are coming here (residence of Ansari) to express their condolences."

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Published: 29 Mar 2024, 12:07 PM IST