Supreme Court Directs Punjab To Hand Over Custody Of Mukhtar Ansari To UP

The court, which held the UP government's plea to be maintainable, however, refused to transfer a criminal case pending against Mukhtar Ansari in Punjab's Mohali to UP and said the matter is at the stage of investigation.

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who is lodged in Rupnagar jail there, to Uttar Pradesh Police, saying the custody was being denied on trivial grounds under guise of medical issues. The top court said a convict or an undertrial prisoner, who disobeys the law of the land, cannot oppose his transfer from one prison to another and the courts are not to be a helpless bystander when the rule of law is being challenged with impunity. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and RS Reddy said the custody of Mukhtar Ansari, an MLA from Mau constituency, be handed over to Uttar Pradesh within two weeks so as to lodge him in District Jail, Banda in UP. The bench said it was open for the special court, constituted for MPs/MLAs at Allahabad, to continue him either in the District Jail at Banda or shift to any other prison in the state, if any need arises.