Jailed gangster-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari passed away on Thursday night at the Banda Medical College in Uttar Pradesh due to a cardiac arrest

Uttar Pradesh government has declared a magistrate inquiry into the passing of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. A trio of individuals will be responsible for conducting the magisterial inquiry. On Friday, a group of two physicians will conduct a videotaped post-mortem. Following the post-mortem, Mukhtar Ansari's son Umar Ansari will get his remains. UP DGP Prashant Kumar said the social media cell of the Uttar Pradesh Police has also been activated to keep a close watch on unlawful elements online.

The 63-year-old Ansari passed away at the hospital after going into cardiac arrest, according to Suneel Kaushal, principal of the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda. He was taken to the hospital from the district prison on Thursday night in "an unconscious state".

The Ghazipur MP, Afzal Ansari, said on Tuesday that his brother had been administered gradual poison while imprisoned. "Mukhtar said that when he was in prison, he was fed food laced with poison. This is the second time it has happened. He was also administered poison some forty days prior. And he was just exposed to this toxin once more, which is why his health is severe," Afzal Ansari stated.

The sixty-three-year-old Mukhtar Ansari served as a Mau Sadar MLA five times between 1996 and 2022. He was nominated twice by the Bahujan Samaj Party, twice by the Independent Party, and once by Quami Ekta Dal. Since 2005, he has been incarcerated in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. There were more than sixty active criminal cases against him. Since September 2022, Mukhtar Ansari has been found guilty in eight counts by various Uttar Pradesh courts and has been detained in the Banda prison. His name was included in the Uttar Pradesh Police's list of 66 criminals from the previous year.

The Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, which was then in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, was represented by Abbas Ansari, Mukhtar Ansari's eldest son, who regained the same assembly seat in 2022. Today is the day when Mukhtar Ansari's family may go before the Allahabad High Court and request that his son Abbas Ansari, who is now detained in Kasganj prison, be granted freedom.
A request will be made to obtain authorization for Mukhtar Ansari's son to attend his burial. If the agency requests that Abbas Ansari be released on parole, a hearing for his release may be set in the High Court.

Alka Rai, wife of Krishnanand Rai, former BJP MLA who was killed by Mukhtar Ansari says, "What can I say? This is the blessing of the Almighty. I used to pray to him for justice and justice has been served today. We never celebrated Holi after the incident (the murder), I felt that today is Holi for us."

Mukhtar Ansari's counsel, in the Krishnanand Rai murder case, Deepak Sharma, says, "It is an unfortunate incident. The media and the government say he died of cardiac arrest but we cannot say anything unless we receive the postmortem report, because prima facie, heart attack does not seem like the actual reason for the death... Two days ago, his lawyers submitted an application with serious allegations against the administration that he was being slowly poisoned... We just have to see if the investigation is carried out honestly."