‘Second such incident…’: Owaisi questions Mukhtar Ansari's death in judicial custody, seeks independent probe

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independent investigation is required and what his family is saying should be taken seriously. It’s the second such incident that a convicted prisoner has died in judicial custody," AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi told news agency PTI while speaking on the death of Mukhtar Ansari. Asaduddin Owaisi was hinting at the killing of Atiq Ahmed, who was killed in a shootout in April 2023 while he was being taken for medical examination by the Uttar Pradesh police.

Mukhtar Ansari was admitted to Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda on Thursday after he complained of abdominal pain. The police took him to hospital in "an unconscious state" where a team of nine doctors examined him and declared him dead due to cardiac arrest. Mukhtar Ansari's family alleged that the gangster-turned-politician was killed and was being subjected to "slow poisoning" at Banda jail.

"Post-mortem will be conducted tomorrow, after that they will give us the body. We will then follow with the further process (cremation)... My father alleged being given a slow poison...

Around five doctors panel has been made (for carrying out the post-mortem)," Mukhtar Ansari's son said. Mukhtar Ansari's death triggered a political row in Uttar Pradesh with both Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party targeting BJP over deaths in judicial custody. "The death of a hostage or prisoner in any of the following circumstances will erode public confidence in the judicial process -- while confined in a police station, in a fight inside the jail, on falling ill inside the prison, while being taken to hospital, during treatment in hospital, by showing a false encounter, by showing a false suicide, by showing casualties in an accident -- all such doubtful cases should be probed