VARANASI: Punjab police refused to hand over mafia don Mukhtar Ansari to an Uttar Pradesh police team, which reached Ropar prison on Tuesday with a court order, citing a 68-day-old medical board report that diagnosed Ansari with recurrent depression, type-2 diabetes, and other ailments, Punjab prison brass did not budge from their stand despite several rounds of talks between senior police officers of the states.
A team of Ghazipur police had gone to Rupnagar (Ropar) jail to fetch Ansari and produce him before the MP-MLA court at Prayagraj, besides questioning him on arms licences issued on fake documents.
A three-member medical board of Rupnagar civil surgeons had stated in its August 13 report that Ansari was diagnosed with radiculopathy in left lower limb, type-2 diabetes, and recurrent depression with somatic symptoms, advising treatment and bed rest for three months.
Ansari was in Banda jail in January 2019 when Punjab police took him to Mohali on a production warrant in a case of a Rs 10-crore extortion threat to a real estate businessman and lodged him in Rupnagar jail since then.
Mukhtar, his family, and members of his gang have been facing action since May when the UP government launched a crackdown on organised crime and smashed his extortion racket, monopoly in coal and fish trade, and illegal slaughtering of animals across several districts.