Mukhtar Ansari, aged 30, showed no fear of law: Delhi cop who arrested him in 1993

New Delhi: Jailed gangster-turned-politician Muktar Ansari, who died after suffering cardiac arrest on Thursday, revealed everything "fearlessly" and "confidently" about his crime when he was arrested by a team of Delhi Police Crime Branch in connection with a highly sensational case in 1993.

The case pertained to ransom for kidnapping a businessman from Lutyens Delhi.

"He was around 30-years-old then, full of confidence and showing no fear of law. That was a highly sensational case in those days," recalled Ashok Chand, a retired Delhi Police officer, who led the team and ensured the safe rescue of the businessman from Panchkula at the Punjab-Haryana border, 250 kilometers away from Delhi.

Ansari and his two associates had demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore from the family members of the west Delhi-based businessman Ved Prakash Goel. The calls were made from a local police booth of Panchkula, where they had hid Goel in a rented accommodation.

Ansari, who was elected an MLA five times, died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Banda on Thursday. He was serving his jail term in a case of gangster act of Uttar Pradesh.

Chand, who interrogated Ansari at length in Delhi, said he and his team never thought that one day, he would become one of the the 'biggest bahubali dons' in north India.

Ansari was facing 61 cases, including land grabbing, extortion, abduction, contract killings, murders, attempt to murder and arms acts.

He had been facing two more cases -- including POTA and MCOCA -- lodged by the Delhi Police Special Cell in 2009.

Goel was travelling in his red colour Marurti car and was going to attend a birthday party of his friend in Pandara Road when he was kidnapped on December 7, 1993.

The family, which was living in west Delhi, next day got a call from a landline number. The caller demanded Rs 1 crore as ransom from Goel's family for his safe rescue.

Chand said Ansari and two of his associates had kidnapped Goel from Tilak Marg area, which is just a few kilometers away from Parliament.

A case under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and Section 387 (putting person in a fear of death or grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) was registered at the Tilak Marg police station the next day. The investigation was handed over to the crime branch.

"The call was found to be made from a local PCO booth in Panchkula, near Chandigarh. Our team laid a trap and managed to nab both the kidnappers and also rescued Goel from a flat in Panchkula," Chand said.

"At that time, we did not know that both the accused were associates of Ansari, who was a notorious gangster of eastern Uttar Pradesh," he said.

Before 1993, Ansari was booked in over 12 cases of crime in various districts of eastern UP, Chand said.

"We also recovered a rope, some tape, a stitched coffin, some injection needles, distilled water, chemical panthalene, etc. from the house where Goel was kept," Chand said.

The accused told the police that Ansari was staying in the guest house in south Delhi and they subsequently apprehended him too. "We recovered rifles and a large number of live cartridges from them," he said.

Ansari was a very good shooter. He was known for his accurate shots, he said.

"We overpowered him and he got arrested. He never showed any resistance. He was very confident and was aware of what is going to be next," Chand said.

The gangster-politician was later booked under POTA as arms and ammunition were recovered from him. He was convicted as well in the case, he said.