Allowing a petition by Uttar Pradesh government, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of custody of gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari from Punjab’s Ropar jail to Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh within two weeks. Punjab government had sternly opposed the UP plea and sought its dismissal.

The apex court was hearing two transfer petitions –– one filed by the UP government seeking transfer of Ansari, a BSP MLA from Mau assembly constituency, from Punjab to UP and another by the accused himself, who sought a transfer of cases against him to Delhi. The transfer plea by Ansari was dismissed, reported Bar & Bench..

Allowing a petition by Uttar Pradesh government, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of custody of gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari from Punjab’s Ropar jail to Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh within two weeks. Punjab government had sternly opposed the UP plea and sought its dismissal.

The apex court was hearing two transfer petitions –– one filed by the UP government seeking transfer of Ansari, a BSP MLA from Mau assembly constituency, from Punjab to UP and another by the accused himself, who sought a transfer of cases against him to Delhi. The transfer plea by Ansari was dismissed, reported Bar & Bench..

The police lodged an FIR in which Ansari was named as the accused with his address as Banda, Uttar Pradesh. The Punjab Police brought Ansari on production warrant from a jail in Uttar Pradesh about a fortnight after the registration of this case. He has been lodged in the Ropar jail since then. 

In October last year, BJP MLA Alka Rai, wife of former BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai who was shot dead in Ghazipur in 2005, had written to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, accusing the Congress government in Punjab of helping jailed Ansari evade court appearances in UP. Ansari was named as a key conspirator in Krishnanand’s murder case. A special court in Delhi acquitted him IN 2019.