Two probes ordered into don-neta Mukhtar Ansari's death

LUCKNOW: A day after Mukhtar Ansari died at Banda's Rani Durgavati Medical College, two investigations were ordered on Friday into his sudden death - one by the judiciary and the other by Banda district magistrate - even as the gangster-turned-politician's son Umar repeated his allegation that slow poisoning and medical negligence took his father's life.
Both investigations are standard operating procedure in case of an unusual death of a convict in judicial custody.
Umar's allegation came on a day Ansari's lawyer Randhir Singh Suman filed a plea in Barabanki MP/ MLA court for registration of an FIR, considering Ansari's March 21 petition before the same court as "dying declaration". Ansari had alleged that he had been served food laced with poison in Banda jail. He had filed a similar petition before MP/MLA court in Mau.

Ansari had said he fell critically ill after eating dinner on March 19. He alleged he was being subjected to slow poisoning for 40-odd days, resulting in a precarious health condition and danger to his life.