CHANDIGARH: More than two years after UP’s gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was dispatched from Punjab’s Ropar jail to the Banda prison after a legal battle as then Congress-ruled Punjab opposed his transfer to UP, it has now emerged that he enjoyed VVIP facilities during his 27-month incarceration in Punjab.
Besides, the Bhagwnt Mann government has refused to pay up Rs 55 lakh legal expenses incurred on account of representing its case in the Supreme Court, terming it a loot of public money. The facts about the “VVIP treatment” for Ansari are a part of the inquiry ordered by the AAP-led Punjab government under Additional DGP RN Dhoke, who recently submitted his report to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The report focuses on the facilities which were extended to Ansari in the Ropar jail.
Linked to the Ansari episode was the controversy over the refusal of the then Congress government in Punjab to transfer the jailed politician to UP. The Punjab government had also hired a senior lawyer to represent it in the SC.
CM Mann has now returned the file refusing to pay legal expenses of Rs 55 lakh. What’s more is his assertion that he plans to recover the amount from former ministers who wanted to keep the UP don in the Punjab jail, forcing the state to hire expensive legal services.
Sources said the inquiry report has not established the allegation that Ansari’s wife or family members stayed with him in jail. It has recommended that a case be registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against some jail officials for allegedly accepting bribes from Ansari in exchange for facilities and a VVIP treatment. Sources said that CM Mann has not cleared the file of fees to be paid to the lawyer who represented the state in this case in the apex court in 2021.