Lucknow : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested MLA Abbas Ansari, son of mafia don Mukhtar Ansari, after nine hours of grilling in a money laundering case.
MLA from Mau Sadar constituency Abbas Bin Mukhtar Ansari will be produced before a court and ED will seek his 14-day custody remand.
At around 12 o’clock in the night, he was taken for medical and taken to Motilal Nehru District Hospital (Colvin Hospital) amidst tight security. After this, he was again brought under house arrest to the ED office.
Earlier, on October 21, the ED had attached seven properties and assets worth Rs 1.48 crore of mafia don Mukhtar Ansari. Abbas Ansari was on Friday (November 4) questioned at EDs Prayagraj office for over nine hours before his arrest. This was in connection with a money laundering case registered against his father and mafia Mukhtar Ansari in March 2021.
ED has already questioned Mukhtar in Banda jail in November 2021. Mukhtar’s brothers BSP MP Afzal Ansari and Sibgatullah Ansari were also questioned by ED in May 2022. Abbas Ansari had been on the run ever since police registered a case against him for giving provocative speech during UP assembly elections early this year.
Recently, Abbas had surrendered before an MP-MLA court on October 21 and was granted bail by the court. On October 16, the Allahabad High Court had granted relief to MLA Abbas Ansari in connection with making controversial statements during the assembly elections.
The Court stayed the order passed by the Special Judge (MP/MLA) Court / Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Senior Division), Mau, as the state Government failed to file a counter affidavit in the case.
In August, the Uttar Pradesh Police had raided several locations in different states across the country in search of MLA Mukhtar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari, who was declared an absconder by the district police.
Abbas Ansari is accused in a fraud case of transfer of arms licence and an arrest warrant was issued by Lucknow Court following it.
On August 18, the Enforcement Directorate conducted multiple raids at the premises of former Bahujan Samaj Party’s MP Mukhtar Ansari in Lucknow and Ghazipur in connection with an alleged Prevention of money laundering case. Earlier, a local court in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Mau Sadar MLA Abbas Ansari. The court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him in the case registered in the Mahanagar police station in Lucknow in October 2019.