Don-Turned-Politician Mukhtar Ansari Lodged In Banda Jail Tests Positive For COVID-19

The authorities collected samples of Ansari from the jail premises on Saturday. His antigen report showed him to be infected with the deadly virus while his RT-PCR report is awaited. The jailed strongman and MLA is currently suffering from fever and has been isolated on doctor's advice.

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari who was recently brought to  Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

According to media reports, the authorities collected samples of Ansari from the jail premises on Saturday. His antigen report showed him to be infected with the deadly virus while his RT-PCR report is awaited. The jailed strongman and MLA is currently suffering from fever and has been isolated on doctor's advice.

Lodged in the Rupnagar jail in Punjab since January 2019 in connection with an extortion case, the BSP MLA was brought back to UP's Banda Jail amid tight security earlier this month on April 7. He was kept in barrack number 16, with heavy security deployed inside as well as outside the jail premises. 

In January 2019, he was arrested for allegedly threatening a Mohali-based builder and demanding a ransom. Ansari was arrested in that case and shifted to Punjab's Ropar jail from Banda, where he was incarcerated in March 2017 in a separate case.

It was in early 1990s when Ansari ventured into property business and contract work but later on stepped into the world of crime.

In November 2005, he was linked to the murder of BJP legislator Krishnanad Rai. In 2009, Ansari, who faces 48 FIRs including 10 murder cases, was again named in the killing of Ajai Prakash Singh, a contractor, in Mau.