NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday witnessed an inter-state battle over dreaded gangster-turned-legislator Mukhtar Ansari with the Uttar Pradesh government accusing Punjab of being in nexus with the criminal and sheltering him from facing trial in over a dozen cases of heinous crimes in UP.
Enjoying the alleged patronage of Punjab, Ansari claimed kinship with former Vice-President Hamid Ansari as well as a former judge of Allahabad HC to tell the SC that he belonged to a respectable family, the cases were because of political vengeance and that he faced grave danger to his life in UP where alleged gangsters were eliminated in encounters. Ansari said he would be better off facing trial through video conferencing while lodged in a Punjab jail.
With senior advocates Dushyant Dave and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Punjab and Ansari respectively, making similar arguments that UP’s writ petition was not maintainable as no fundamental right of the state was violated and that the trial could be conducted through video conferencing, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for UP government, asked, “Why is Punjab government supporting a dreaded criminal so vociferously? Punjab is supporting Ansari and there is no pretence about it.”
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R S Reddy adjourned to February 24 the hearing on UP’s writ petition seeking a direction to the Punjab government to hand over Ansari to UP police to produce him before the designated court.
Countering Punjab and Ansari’s stand that the gangster could face trial while being lodged in a Punjab jail, Mehta sharpened his attack and said, “Punjab government and Rupnagar jail superintendent have been sheltering Ansari for the past two years on the basis of two FIRs registered against him in Punjab, ignoring the fact that more than 30 FIRs and more than 14 criminal trials, including for heinous crimes of murder and under Gangster Act, are pending against him in various MP/MLA courts, awaiting his presence in UP.”
The UP government, in its affidavit filed through advocate Garima Prasad, said, “Punjab has made a mockery of the federal structure of governance by seeking to defend an accused who is a gangster and a history sheeter.” On the basis of an alleged ransom call made to a builder, Punjab police took Ansari from Banda jail in UP on January 22, 2019, for investigation purposes. It has refused to return Ansari to UP since then.