How Mukhtar Ansari’s 2-yr Punjab jail stay now in news over an unpaid bill

Ansari was in Ropar jail for over two years, from January 2019 to April 2021, under the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government. He was brought to Punjab on a transit remand after an extortion call was made to a Mohali-based realtor, reportedly for Rs 10 crore, from the Bonda jail in Uttar Pradesh, where Ansari was lodged at the time.

Ansari faces around 60 cases of land grab, murder and extortion in all, and has been in jail for over 15 years.

Ansari was booked under cases of extortion and criminal conspiracy by the Punjab Police, and after two days in police custody, was sent to Ropar Jail on judicial remand. He stayed in the jail for over two years.

The AAP has suggested that Amarinder had a hand in Ansari’s extended stay in Punjab, and that the latter didn’t want to be shifted back to UP. On Tuesday, CM Mann said Amarinder should ask his son Raninder about who Ansari was – a reference apparently to the fact that while Ansari’s son Abbas is a shooter, Raninder used to be an office-bearer of the Indian shooting association.

Mann said Ansari was brought to Punjab so that a fast-track court in UP could not sentence him for want of his remand.

Dave is due Rs 55 lakh for appearing for the Punjab government in the Supreme Court to oppose the remand of Ansari to UP. While Dave sent the bill some time back, it never got cleared as the Congress lost power.

Recently, the file was put up before Bhagwant Mann, who declared that he would not put the burden of Dave’s fees on the state exchequer, and questioned the Congress government’s opposition to Ansari being remanded to UP.

Soon after it came to power last year, the AAP government had ordered an inquiry, headed by Additional DGP R N Dhoke, into allegations that Ansari was given “five-star treatment” while in Ropar jail, and that some jail officials took bribes to help facilitate this.

The probe also said that Ansari’s family stayed just outside the jail for easy access, while two of his aides were moved into the same prison as him, after being booked in some cases, to ease his stay inside.

The case against Ansari in Punjab, meanwhile, kept hanging. While the police did not produce the challan in the FIR in court, Ansari did not apply for bail once during his stay in Ropar jail. Between the time he was brought to Punjab and till he was sent back to Bonda jail, the UP Police issued warrants and wrote to Punjab at least 23 times.

In April 2021, after the UP Police moved the Supreme Court stating that Punjab was “shamelessly” retaining Ansari, he was finally shifted back to Bonda jail.

The file regarding the money owed to Dave was put up before the Punjab government for the first time only in January 2022, by when Charanjit Singh Channi had taken over as Congress CM, replacing Amarinder. The file stated that the lawyer fees was higher than that determined by the government.

After that the Jails Department and Home Department kept passing the buck on the file.

In March 2022, Mann was sworn in at head of an AAP government.