UP police quizzes Mukhtar Ansari in jail on ambulance registration fraud case

The Uttar Pradesh police has questioned gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari in Banda jail in connection with a case filed here over alleged fraud in registration of an ambulance used to ferry him to a court in Punjab, officials said.

The case was registered in Barabanki in April after the documents of the ambulance were found to be fake, the UP police had said then.

Superintendent of Police of Barabanki Yamuna Prasad said on Friday that a Special Investigation Team questioned Ansari over two days during which his relations with some people in Barabanki came to light.

They will also be examined soon, he said.

During his jail time in Punjab, Ansari was on March 31 taken to the Mohali court from Ropar jail in an ambulance having its number registered in Barabanki.

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A case was registered on April 2 in Barabanki after finding that the documents used for registration of the ambulance were fake.

The Bahujan Samaj Party MLA from Mau faces trial in Uttar Pradesh in several cases, including attempt to murder and murder. His transfer from Punjab was ordered by the Supreme Court after the UP government approached it, seeking his custody from Punjab.

But days before being transferred to Uttar Pradesh, he was produced before the Mohali court in connection with an alleged 2019 extortion matter. He was ferried to the court in the ambulance in question.

The ambulance was later found registered in the name of a doctor named Alka Rai, and subsequently a case was lodged against her too.

According to sources in the police, the SIT team has found evidence of Mukhtar Ansari's Barabanki connections, including with some real-estate businesspersons.

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Yamuna Prasad said that during the interrogation, many important pieces of evidence have been obtained and several names from the district came to light.

He said that after a thorough examination of the evidence and information that have been received, strict action will be taken against the people of Barabanki involved in registering the ambulance.

In the ambulance case, police had arrested two people, including Dr Alka Rai who is the director of a hospital, and sent them to jail on April 20.

After spending over two years in a Punjab prison, Ansari was brought to Banda jail in early April after the Uttar Pradesh Police had taken his custody on a Supreme Court order.

Ansari was lodged in Rupnagar jail in Punjab in January 2019 in connection with an extortion case.