Punjab Jail Minister Harjot Bains created a sensation on Tuesday in the state Assembly when he disclosed that the previous Congress government spent Rs. 55 lakh to hire a Supreme Court lawyers to protect Mukhtar Ansari instead of handing him over to the UP Police. The Jail Minister said that the then Congress government had registered a fake FIR against Mukhtar Ansari and did not even present a challan against him. Ansari was lodged in Ropar Jail in Punjab in 2019 in a extortion case.
Making the revelation in the House, the minister said that this was a serious matter. The gangster had, while in Ropar Jail, a whole barrack to him and given VIP treatment. His wife also stayed with him in the barrack.
To get Ansari’s custody, the UP Police issued production warrants 26 times but he was not handed him over to them. The UP government moved the Supreme Court. The then Congress government hired a well-known lawyer in the Supreme Court to help Ansari and the Punjab Government has now received a bill of Rs. 55 lakh.
Bains also informed the House that he has ordered to register an FIR and investigation into the matter.
Ansari was accused of demanding Rs. 10 crore from a builder in Mohali. He was brought to Mohali on a production warrant by the Punjab Police and was lodged in Ropar jail since January 2019. He was handed over to the UP Police upon a Supreme Court order in April last year.