Uttar Pradesh: District Magistrate Gazipur Aryaka Akhoury said on Saturday that police have been deployed along the route leading from his home to the graveyard as the last rites of the gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari would be held today.
Mukhtar Ansari will be laid to rest in Mohammadabad, in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. Police have been deployed outside the burial ground to maintain law and order as people have gathered to pay their respects to the gangster turned politician.
District Magistrate Gazipur Aryaka Akhoury said, "The preparations are complete. Police have been deployed on a 600-metre route leading from his home to the graveyard. The movement of the people is being watched. The late rites would be concluded peacefully.
The late rites would be held at 10 am today, DM Akhoury said.
Replying to a query, she said, "The family, close relatives, and people who are on the list will participate in the last rites. People who will throw the soil at the funeral will also come." (People participate in this ritual to pay respect and bid a final goodbye to their loved one.).
Following the postmortem, the body of the gangster was brought to his Ghazipur residence on Friday night amid heavy police deployment.
Mukhtar Ansari died in a hospital at Banda, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday. His family, however, claimed that he was "given poison in the food."
According to the official release from the hospital, Ansari was brought to the hospital around 8:25 pm on Thursday. A team of nine doctors attended to him before he died, the release added.
Sibgatullah Ansari, Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother, claimed on Friday that the administration did not inform him and that he learned about his brother's death through the media.
Meanwhile, a three-member team will conduct a magisterial investigation into the death of Ansari.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Banda issued orders concerning the judicial probe. Officials said a panel of two doctors will do the post-mortem, which will be videographed.
In April 2023, Mukhtar Ansari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP-MLA court.
He was sentenced to life in prison on March 13, 2024, in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990.
