‘Heart Attack’ Fells Mukhtar Ansari, Jailed Ex-MLA Had Warned SC of Plot to Kill Him

The apex court heard the convicted politician’s request for transfer to a jail outside UP in January and set the next hearing for July 2024. Two days ago, his brother alleged Ansari was poisoned in jail as part of a conspiracy to murder him.

New Delhi: Three months after his lawyers moved the Supreme Court about the possibility that he may be eliminated in custody, jailed former legislator Mukhtar Ansari died on Thursday, March 28 due to “cardiac arrest” after he was rushed to a hospital from Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh.

Government doctors said Ansari had fallen unconscious but two days before his death, his brother Afzal Ansari, a former Member of Parliament and Samajwadi Party candidate from Ghazipur in 2024, publicly alleged that he was being poisoned in jail as part of a “conspiracy” to murder him.

In December 2023, Mukhtar’s younger son, Umar Ansari, had approached the Supreme Court apprehending that the state government was planning to assassinate him in Banda jail where he was lodged as a convict and accused in several criminal cases.

Ansari, who was under the radar of the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party government ever since it came to power in the state in 2017, fainted in his cell and was taken to the Rani Durgavati Medical College at around 8:25pm on Thursday, after vomiting and losing consciousness, said a medical bulletin of the hospital.

He was taken to the emergency ward where a team of nine doctors immediately treated him but despite best efforts, he died due to cardiac arrest, said the bulletin.

Ansari was 63. Security has been beefed up in several districts in east UP.

On Tuesday, March 26, Ansari was hospitalized for several hours after he complained of abdominal pain.

The UP prison department said Ansari was rushed to a hospital on Tuesday after his health “deteriorated suddenly” at night and “he fell in the toilet.” He was transferred to the Banda medical college in the middle of the night.

The hospital had said he was admitted on March 26 at 3:55 am with “complaints of pain [in the] abdomen and [being] unable to pass stool and flatus for 4-5 days.” The 8 am bulletin of the Banda Medical College had said, “Patient is admitted and conservative treatment is started. Patient is stable currently.”

Ansari was later discharged from the ICU of the hospital and taken back to jail.

On that day, Afzal Ansari alleged that his brother was fed food mixed with a “poisonous substance.”

“There is a conspiracy to murder him in jail,” Afzal told reporters.

In an application filed in the MP/MLA court in Barabanki on March 21, Ansari had said that on March 19 he was fed some poisonous substance along with his food in jail, following which he felt uneasy and felt pain in his limbs. Around 40 days before that, he was given a “slow poison” with his meal, he alleged.

The SP politician, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Ghazipur, said his brother’s health was fast deteriorating and he had even unable to even attend the virtual hearings in his case for the past few days.

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Mukhtar’s son Umar Ansari had filed a writ petition in the SC last December praying that his father be moved to a jail outside UP. On December 15, 2023, the Adityanath government assured the apex court that “necessary augmentation of security as needed will be made,” to ensure that no harm was caused to Ansari while in custody. In his petition, Umar Ansari had expressed concern for his father’s well-being by drawing attention to the murder of former Lok Sabha MP and tainted politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmad while they were being escorted by a team of policemen for a routine medical check-up in Prayagraj on April 15, last year. The Ahmad brothers were killed in front of reporters and the footage was relayed live on television.

On January 16, 2024, a division bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Misra had directed the UP government to continue with all the security arrangements to ensure that Ansari “is fully protected from any security breach and consequences.” During this hearing, K.M. Natraj, additional solicitor general, referred to the “elaborate security arrangements” made for Ansari.

The court then listed the matter for the third week of July.

A five-time former MLA from Mau in eastern UP, Mukhtar was under the radar of the Adityanath government, which after coming to power in 2017 unleashed the police and the force of the administration against him, his family and supporters. The state government designated Mukhtar a “gangster” and head of gang IS191, and lodged numerous criminal cases against him, his sons, including current MLA Abbas Ansari, his brother and former MP Afzal Ansari and other associates. The government has seized, demolished and freed from “illegal occupation” property worth crores belonging to the Ansari family, said police.

Till December 2023, the police had had shot dead five persons linked to Ansari in alleged encounters and taken legal action against 292 persons linked to him; booked 164 of his associates under the Gangsters Act, six under the National Security Act, 67 under the Gangsters Act, expelled 60 of his associates from their districts, arrested 186 and cancelled 175 weapon licences.

In December 2023, in a writ petition filed under Article 32 of the constitution, Ansari’s son Umar Ansari had sought protection for his father from the apex court in the form of a transfer from the Banda jail to a prison outside the state. Mukhtar faced an “immediate and grave threat to his life and limb” in UP, said Umar.

Arguing for Ansari, senior counsel Kapil Sibal had submitted that despite directions by the Allahabad high court to ensure the safety of Ansari, Sanjeev Maheshwari alias Jeeva – a co-accused of Ansari in the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005 – was shot dead inside a courtroom in Lucknow on June 8, 2023, while he was being brought from jail.

The Allahabad high court had in May 2023, on a petition filed by Ansari’s wife, directed the DGP UP to ensure her husband’s security inside the jail as well as outside it. The court had directed the police to ensure that “full security” be given to Ansari while shifting him from one jail to another and while producing him before any court from jail and on the way. The HC had taken into consideration the murder of Atiq Ahmad and his brother while passing the directions, and said:

“Media person would not be permitted to interview him. He would be accompanied by the police personnel during his ingress and egress from jail. This order is being passed seeing the recent episode which occurred in the State of Uttar Pradesh, wherein in the garb of media persons some criminals had killed two under trial prisoners, who were in the custody of the Police Personnel, which matters are pending before the Apex Court.”

In his petition, Mukhtar’s son accused the Adityanath government of taking an “inimical position” against the former MLA and hatching a “larger conspiracy” to eliminate him while he was in jail. The threat perception was based on “reliable information” Mukhtar had received that his life was in grave danger and that there “is a conspiracy afoot involving several actors within the state establishment” to assassinate him in Banda jail.

In the last year or so, Mukhtar Ansari had been convicted in more than seven different cases. On December 15, a court in Varanasi sentenced him to six years and five months in prison for a case lodged against him in 1997 on charges of criminal intimidation. The other convictions include a life sentence awarded to him by a Varanasi court in June 2023 for the murder of Awadesh Rai, the brother of Congress state president Ajay Rai, and the 10 years imprisonment awarded to him for kidnapping a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader in connection with the murder of Krishnanand Rai in 2005.

In his petition, Umar Ansari said that out of the persons accused of murdering Rai, four, including Jeeva (mentioned above) had already been murdered. While Firdaus was gunned down by the STF in 2006, Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi was murdered in Baghpat jail in 2018 by another convicted gangster Sunil Rathi. More than a week before his murder Bajrangi’s wife Seema Singh had in a press conference in Lucknow on June 29 that year alleged that the UP police along with some political leaders and officials were conspiring to get him eliminated outside the jail in a “fake encounter.” Singh had also claimed that during his stay in Jhansi jail there had been an attempt to poison her husband.

Another aide of Mukhtar, Rakesh Pandey was shot dead by the police in an alleged “encounter” in August 2020 after the SUV he was purportedly travelling in along with four other persons crashed into a tree in the early hours of a Sunday morning. Pandey’s family had accused the police of picking him up from home in Lucknow and then killing him.

Mukhtar’s eldest son Abbas Ansari, an MLA, is also in jail.

Promised ‘Gram Swaraj’ Eludes Varanasi Villages Narendra Modi Adopted

The promises of housing for all, working toilets and connectivity remain unfulfilled even in the villages the prime minister took on as his own.

This is the first article in a series of ground reports looking into whether the Bharatiya Janata Party has kept its poll promises in the last 10 years.

This article was first published on March 14, 2024 and has been republished on March 17, 2024.

Varanasi: On a cold morning in December 2023, Mahesh Chauhan, a 48-year-old Dalit man, was digging a pit in front of his kutcha house made from mud, unburnt bricks, bamboo and plastic. His neighbours in the Harijan Basti, a segregated neighbourhood of lowered caste Hindus in Domri village of Varanasi, were helping him. Chauhan decided to dig this pit after his goats were stolen while he was sleeping in the open. The two goats were worth nearly Rs 15,000 – an amount so huge that his daily wages could take months to compensate. Under such circumstances, a pit – making access to his kutcha house harder – was the only way to secure his home.

Over the last one decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has adopted eight villages in Varanasi under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). Chauhan’s village Domri, next to the river Ganga, is one of them. Under this scheme, each parliamentarian in India adopts one village from their constituency to make it a ‘model village’ within their tenure. Modi announced the SAGY in his first Independence Day speech in 2014, with promises of smart schools, universal access to basic health facilities and pukka housing for homeless villagers.

Mahesh Chauhan digging a pit in front of his house. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

However, Domri is far from being a model village. In the absence of a house, most families in the Harijan Basti say they survive the monsoons under plastic and use a thin cloth for protection from mosquitoes when sleeping outside. For many, the cold becomes more unbearable than summer and rain. But the lack of housing worst hit Chauhan when his goats were recently stolen. He asked, “Could my goats have been stolen if I had a house?”

After announcing the SAGY in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party in its 2019 manifesto seeking a second term had promised ‘gram swaraj’ with Saashray (pukka houses for all living in kutcha houses) by 2022, Sujal (tap water for all) by 2024, Suchna se Sashaktikaran (digital connectivity through Bharatnet for all panchayats) by 2022, Sadak se Samriddhi (massive road connectivity) and Swachata se Sampannata (100 % disposal of liquid wastewater).

Page 16 from Bharatiya Janata Party’s 2019 manifesto which promises Gram Swaraj.

However, The Wire’s reporting found that in most of the villages adopted by Modi in Varanasi, the “gram swaraj” promises are not yet a reality. In Jayapur, the first village adopted by Modi, many Dalits do not have houses and functional toilets. In Nagepur, the situation is similar – and additionally, the roads too are in poor condition. In Parampur, the whole village has taps installed but those taps have no water. In Puregaon, for the last two months there was no water supply when The Wire visited in December. Many Dalits and Yadavs live in mud-houses there. In Pure Bariyarpur the Dalit neighbourhood was separated from the village to create a new village, Jogapur. While Pure Baryarpur has amenities, many Dalits in Jogapur have no taps. The water in handpumps is so polluted that one can see it with bare eyes. Some have got houses under the Indira Awas Yojana. In Kakrahiya, which is an exception, villagers say their condition was better even before Modi adopted them. Many have taps, water and pakka houses. The Wire also saw inaugural stones of  a school and road by Narendra Modi in the village. Villagers say that is because the village is dominated by “upper castes.”

A woman washing utensils with stale water in Parampur village. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Himanshu, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)’s Centre for Economic Studies and Planning said there are many issues in the design of policies. “The subsidies given for these policies are hardly enough and local corruption makes it even more difficult to make a change on ground. The toilet is a good example. They are bound to be non-functional because with such little money, hardly any good toilets can be made. Similarly in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the subsidy is not sufficient to be able to build a proper house. Then there is convergence between various programmes, for instance people are given a toilet without housing or people are given housing without tap water.”

BJP promises performance

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty

This was corroborated on the ground by The Wire. While Lal Dhar in Jayapur has a toilet with a broken door, he has no house. Similarly, Mohit Chauhan from Domri village does not have a house but he has a tap and a toilet. Karma Devi from Nagepur has no house, no toilet but she has a tap where water comes three times a day.

The Wire has reached out to the Divisional Commissioner, Varanasi and District Commissioner, Varanasi for comments on these findings. This article will be updated when they respond.

Housing

In the absence of any independent housing need assessment, Modi’s government revamped the Indira Awas Yojana as the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY), which is a credit-linked subsidy scheme to facilitate affordable housing by 2022. It is 2024 and the plan is still incomplete.

Chauhan’s wife, Barkha Devi, 37 told The Wire that they have applied for a house under Narendra Modi’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana nearly 5 times. She said “Including Aadhaar card, PAN Card, two copies of the passbook, and the photograph we have given to Pradhan four times. This time we applied once again. Recently the DM sir came (to Domri). At that time, while shouting they told us that… Mahesh, Barkha.. your house is passed. However, after six months we were informed that the awas had not passed.”

The PMAY does not promise a free house, rather people need to pay their share for building one.. Amid the dwindling economy, many people are unable to pay their share due to a dip in their incomes and their houses remain incomplete. The government’s own data as reported by The Hindu shows that a total of 5,13,654 houses are ‘unoccupied,’ despite completion, across the country. Moreover, a parliamentary standing committee found that in a rush to show output, on merely physical completion of houses in the absence of basic amenities, the buildings are being counted as ‘completed’ houses.

Vikas Yadav and his wife in their kutcha house in Katchua road of Pure village. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Amid policy issues faced during implementation of PMAY, in 2023, the Union government withdrew the allocation of 1.44 lakh houses from about two dozen states including Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, and Rajasthan, and gave these to the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh as additional allocation. Uttar Pradesh is a key state with 80 parliamentary constituencies. Even though other states pleaded with the centre for more allocation, UP was awarded additional funds despite having one of the highest allocations in the country.

Despite that, many people in the villages of UP are still living in mud houses, including Lakhandar Ram, a 55 year old Dalit man in Pure village adopted by Modi. He said, “For centuries now we are living in a mud house. There is no help from the government. Our great father and father have died without a house. We have not even got even a single room.”

Lakhandar Ram eating food in his house in Pure village. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

As Himanshu put it, “The subsidies and designs are not enough to change the social structure of society. Even if you give them a house, a Dalit is going to be in Dalit neighbourhood.

Water

Under the “Nal se Jal” programme the Modi government promised a piped water connection to every household by 2024. However, according to estimates, only three out of four rural households are likely to have drinking water tap connections by 2024, despite promises of 100% coverage. The work has not even begun in 5% of homes as per the government’s own data.

Many taps were covered in cloth and spider webs as in absence of water connection, they were rarely used. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Like PMAY, UP is the biggest beneficiary of the centre’s Har Ghar Jal scheme. On paper, UP’s progress is impressive. For instance, only 5.1 lakh — or 1% — of the state’s households had tap connections when the Har Ghar Jal scheme was launched. This grew to 32 lakh by August 2021 and to 42 lakh by August 2022. As of now, half of Uttar Pradesh’s households have taps and pipes – on paper.

However, in many villages there are pipes, but those pipes do not have water. The Wire found in Modi’s adopted villages of Puregaon and Parampur that the taps had no water; in Puregaon the water connections were never built, while Parampur’s residents said they hadn’t received water for the two months preceding our visit. In Jogapur, next to Modi’s adopted village Bariyarpur, there were no taps. Sunita Devi and Chandroli from Jogapur showed The Wire how the groundwater taken out of the hand-pump in their village was polluted. Even after filtering that water with a cloth, sand made the water undrinkable.

Sunita Devi uses a hand pump to pump out groundwater. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

The groundwater is visibly polluted. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Chandroli uses a cloth to clean that groundwater. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

According to a report in The Hindu, of Uttar Pradesh ‘s 98,455 villages, only 13,085 have reported being fully pipe connected – and only 2,837 of these have been certified by the panchayat as having taps with water. Thus, in reality, only about 3% of UP villages can be said to be 100% certified as Har Ghar Jal villages – a stark contrast from the total number of connections in the state.

Kisnawati Devi from Naricha area of Parampur said, “Water is a big issue for us.” Often villagers arrange water from nearby villages where there is still water in taps by paying a monthly payment of Rs 100. Often that means if they fill water once, they use stale water for days. Kisnawati said, “When the water machine starts, we have to leave everything and run towards it with a bucket. That bucket full of water is used for everything the whole day, whether it is washing clothes or bathing. Then again we have to run in the evening to refill water.” She added how difficult days get for women during menstruation. “The cloth remains stained for days. If we get water, then only we can wash it,” she said.

Women in Parampur village say water is a big issue for them. They have taps but those taps have no water. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Digital India

“Suchna se Sashaktikaran,” a promise to bring digital connectivity to all panchayats in India by 2022 is also lagging after missing multiple deadlines. Out of India’s 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, around 2 lakh gram panchayats have been connected through BharatNet. However, this does not mean that these gram panchayats have functioning internet. Only 6,307 panchayats have active Wi-Fi as per Bharat Broadband Network Limited data on January 29, 2024. The Wire was not able to verify how many villages adopted by Modi were connected with the internet as most of the gram panchayat offices were closed, and the BBNL data does not reveal the names of the connected panchayats.

Roads

Despite Narendra Modi’s promise of robust road connectivity, many villages adopted by Modi do not have functional roads. The road in Nagepur village, outside Rajnath and Sushila’s kutcha house, is completely broken. Since there is no drainage or sewerage lines, the dirty water flows through the gully and often gets trapped in potholes. The couple, in their 60s, have now led their entire lives without roofs. They said, “People who do not have a roof do not care about the roads.” Their daughter-in-law, 28-year-old Karma Devi, asked if they will ever get a better standard of living, especially since her husband is often unemployed. She said, “He works for two days, then sits at home for the next two days.” While cuddling her newborn, she pointed towards a pothole-filled route and said, “Road…this is what it is…”

A road in Nagepur village outside Rajnath and Sushila’s kutcha house. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Azhar Ansari from Pure village claimed that when Modi adopted their village a road widening programme was sanctioned. He said, “The road was supposed to get longer and wider. It has not happened yet. At least the tasks that they have taken, they should be fulfilled. Else an inquiry should be set up.”

Lakhandar Ram, an elderly Dalit man and community leader, equated their village with hell and said, “We have no facilities here. I do not know how a drain was sanctioned a couple of years back. Otherwise every morning commuters abused us (because of overflowing liquid waste water).”

The construction of rural roads in India has taken a backseat from the last couple of years. The annual target of 47,171 kilometres of rural roads construction under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, was missed by 17,414 kilometres in 2023. The government was only able to connect nearly 617 hamlets with roads. The situation was similar in 2022 when nearly 7,991 kilometres of road sanctioned was not constructed. A year before that the target was missed by 9,487 kilometres.

Sujit Kumar Patel, who was pradhan of Kakrahiya villlage when Modi adopted it, claimed the village got a road and water during the Akhilesh Yadav government in UP. He said, “Under the Lohiya Yojana of the Akhilesh government, we got 8-10 aawas, for each awas 3.25 lacs were sanctioned. We also got a road made.” He claimed Kakrahiya village is one of the best in the region because people are very “active”.

When asked what was done under Modi’s tenure, he said, “Modi also did very good work,” but was unable to recount Gram Swaraj developments as promised by the prime minister. He said, “Look, we have 24×7 electricity , crime is almost over, roads are also very good.”

Sanitation

Another villager, Lakhandar, claimed the situation of toilets in their village is no good. He said, “Every morning we fight and abuse each other to urinate.” Ansari, his neighbour from Pure village, showed how the public toilets in their village have no water and said, “If Modi ji has adopted our village, they should send someone to see what facilities are here and what facilities are missing. It is his responsibility.”

In Jayapur village, in the toilet assigned to Lal Dhar, the door is half collapsed and the pit is almost full. Nearly 10 people use that toilet which has no tap. The women of Lal Dhar’s household are only able to use the toilet at night.  He says, “This is Modi’s village. What happened was that they did some fake work and went away.”

According to Swachh Bharat Mission guidelines released in 2017, “a duly completed household sanitary latrine unit shall comprise of a sanitary substructure that safely confines human faeces and eliminates the need for human handling before it is fully decomposed or a superstructure with water facility, and a hand wash unit for cleaning and handwashing.”

In almost all villages that The Wire toured in Varanasi, many toilets were completely abandoned as they had no roofs or their pits were full, making them useless.

The toilet’s pit is full, making it unusable for villagers in Parampur. Photo: Srishti Jaswal

Srinarayan Singh Patel, who was the pradhan of Jayapur when the village was adopted by Modi, claimed a lot has been done, such as the opening of two banks and a post office. When asked about the condition of the Harijan Basti in his village, he said, “Those who are remaining, it doesn’t mean they will not get it (housing).” Regarding the broken toilets, he said, “Those who have got it (toilets) before, upkeep is their responsibility, not the government’s.”

While he also claimed that the Panchayat office has internet, he said the work is slow because the complete money has not been sanctioned yet. He said, “Slowly, slowly the work is happening because after the BJP government came, these new schemes have come up. But it will take time. After complete funding is received, complete work will be done.”

Segregation

All the villages that The Wire visited were segregated based on caste and religion. In most villages, Muslims were rarely present. In Pure Gaon, where there is a Muslim population, there were separate areas for upper castes, Dalits, Yadavs and Muslims.

Himanshu told The Wire, “This feature of segregation is unlikely to go away because they are prime minister’s villages. Caste-related issues will remain. The lack of access is determined by local power structures. As in any other village of Uttar Pradesh, those will remain.”

He added, “The level of deficit is very high, it is not going to be covered in one year or even ten years,” however,  “Holding the government accountable is a job that democracy must do. Political parties must be questioned on these promises and they must be held accountable for not fulfilling whatever promises they made. That is supposed to be the job of the electorate.”

UPDATE on March 18, 2024, 8:40 am

The Varanasi Municipal Corporation informed this reporter via a direct message on X (formerly Twitter) that the District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), Varanasi conducted an inspection in Domri village and found that villager Mahesh Chauhan did not have a pakka house or any land, as reported by The Wire.

The District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), Varanasi’s recent report on the status of Mahesh Chauhan’s house, sent to The Wire by the Varanasi Municipal Corporation.

DUDA reasoned that currently new applications are not being accepted under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The agency also claimed that Mahesh Chauhan had not applied for housing so far and they will process his application in the next financial year.

However, Mahesh’s wife Barkha had informed The Wire that they applied for housing at least five times. She also showed us a receipt that she got last time upon filling the form.

The receipt shown by Barkha Devi. Photo: The Wire

Watch | In Real Life with Raghu Karnad: Varun Grover on Sex, Violence and Dreaming

Varun Grover, writer and director of All India Rank, and Raghu Karnad talk about bodies, minds and young people in the real world.

Varun Grover had already spent weeks doing media interviews around All India Rank, his debut feature filmbefore he sat down to talk with Raghu Karnad. The two of them agreed on a different kind of talk.

Three themes from the film – beyond just exams and placements – became their prompts for three short but penetrating conversations.

Grover is a stand-up comedian, lyricist, film writer and now director, whose creations have been milestones in the past decade of popular culture. They include the script of Masaan (2015), of Sacred Games (2018) and the live tours of his group show, ‘Aisi Taisi Democracy’.

All India Rank is Grover’s nostalgic coming-of-age story set in the late nineties, the early days of India’s IIT admissions mania. Reviewing the film in The Wire, Tatsam Mukherjee says, “Where Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film [Twelfth Fail] went after catharsis, Grover’s film seems to be grappling with larger questions.”

Here are three mini-conversations, about sex, violence, and dreaming, as they figure in Grover’s film, in our culture and in real life.