The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of gangster-turned-BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari from Ropar jail in Punjab to a prison in Banda district in Uttar Pradesh within two weeks.
A bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice R Subhash Reddy rejected the Punjab government's opposition to the transfer plea by the Uttar Pradesh government.
The court also dismissed the plea of Ansari seeking transfer of cases pending against him in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi.
The bench said Ansari shall be lodged in Banda jail and the jail superintendent will extend necessary medical facilities.
The Uttar Pradesh government had filed a writ petition in the court seeking transfer of custody of Mukhtar Ansar from Punjab to face trial in as many as 14 pending cases. It claimed more than 30 FIRs, including those related to heinous crimes of murder and the Gangster Act, were filed against Ansari.
Ansari, for his part, alleged there is a threat to his life in Uttar Pradesh as one of the co-accused was "eliminated in an encounter" by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The Punjab government said Ansari, an MLA from Mau, could be tried through video conferencing, which was rejected by the UP government that said if video conferencing was the only mode of trial for an accused to appear from anywhere, then Vijay Mallya can face trial from the United Kingdom.
The UP government claimed the Punjab government was "shamelessly" protecting Ansari, lodged in a jail there since January 2019 in connection with an alleged extortion case.
(Published 26 March 2021, 10:04 IST)
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