The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Punjab government to hand over the custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to Uttar Pradesh Police within two weeks.
A Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R. Subhash Reddy said Punjab had denied Uttar Pradesh the custody of Ansari on trivial grounds. Ansari, an MLA from Mau constituency, is currently lodged in a Punjab jail.
The apex court said a convict or an undertrial prisoner, who disobeys the law of the land, cannot oppose his transfer from one prison to another and the courts are not to be a helpless bystander when the rule of law is being challenged with impunity.
The court, in a judgment, ordered Ansari to be lodged in District Jail, Banda, in U.P.
Justice Reddy, who authored the 56-page verdict, said it was open for the special court, constituted for MPs/MLAs at Allahabad, to continue him either in the District Jail at Banda or shift to any other prison in the State.
Medical facilities
“There shall be a direction to the Superintendent of Jail, District Jail Banda, Uttar Pradesh, to extend the necessary medical facilities to the 3rd respondent (Ansari). It is made clear that if any speciality treatment is required to the 3rd respondent, the Jail Superintendent of District Jail, Banda, Uttar Pradesh, shall take necessary steps to extend such medical care also, by following the Jail Manual,” the judgment read.
