'Last rites of slain gangster performed,' SC refuses wife's plea

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court the last rites of gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari alias Jeeva has already been performed and his widow failed to participate in it despite its assurance of no coercive action against her.

UP's Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad submitted before a vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal that the son of the deceased had performed the last rite of Jeeva, who was shot dead in Lucknow court premises on Wednesday.

Jeeva was an aide of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari.

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She said Jeeva’s funeral had already taken place and there is no urgency to take up an application filed by his wife Payal against the Allahabad High Court's order declining to quash the gangster case against her. The counsel also said the petitioner was a history sheeter and used to run the gang on behalf of the deceased.

Payal's counsel submitted that the petitioner should be granted protection during the 13-day mourning period.

The court, however, declined the request, saying there was no urgency to take up her petition arising out of the Allahabad High Court's order.

Jeeva, a dreaded shooter from Muzaffarnagar, was killed inside Lucknow court complex on Wednesday evening. Jeeva was a co-accused in BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai murder, in which Mukhtar Ansari was also an accused. He was an accused in the killing of former UP Minister Brahma Dutt Dwivedi. He began as a compounder and then became a member of the underworld. He was a close associate of Munna Bajrangi who was shot dead in 2018 in Baghpat jail.