(WNAM Monitoring): A gangster-turned-politician has died of cardiac arrest in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, authorities said on Thursday.
Mukhtar Ansari, the 63-year-old, five-time lawmaker from the state, had been in jail in since 2005.
The circumstances of his death are disputed by his family who say he was given a “poisonous substance” in jail.
Police tightened security in the state as crowds thronged outside Ansari’s home after the news of his death.
Ansari, who ran his own gang in the 1990s, had more than 60 criminal cases against him, 15 of which included murder charges.
He joined politics and won his first state election in 1996 in his home constituency of Mau. He remained a lawmaker from the seat till 2022.
In April 2023, he was convicted for killing Krishnanand Rai, a lawmaker of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He received a life sentence earlier this month for a 1990 case involving fake arms licenses.
On Thursday, jail authorities in Banda district said Ansari was taken to hospital after he complained of vomiting.
“The patient was provided immediate medical care by a team of nine doctors,” a medical bulletin by the Rani Durgavati Medical College said. “But, despite their best efforts, he died due to a cardiac arrest.”
