Lucknow: Mafia don turned politician, Mukhtar Ansari, is among 26 jail inmates who tested positive on Sunday in Banda Jail.
The BSP MLA had been running fever, cough and cold since Friday evening and had undergone an RT PCR test on Saturday along with other jail inmates. Mukhtar and 25 other jail inmates tested positive when their report came on Sunday.
Ansari is quarantined at his barrack no 15. The jail authorities have banned the entry of anyone in his isolated barrack, which is under 24 x 7 camera surveillance. A request of his relatives for meeting the jailed gangster was turned down.
However, things they had brought to make him comfortable in jail were passed on to Mukhtar in his cell. After testing positive, the jail doctors have started Covid-19 medication to the mafia don and observing his health conditions.
Gangster Mukhtar Ansari was brought back to Banda Jail from Ropar Jail in Punjab amid heavy security on April 7 on the directions of the Supreme Court.
He has been attending the hearing of cases pending against him in different courts through the video-conferencing. Jail authorities claimed that he may have caught the Covid-19 infection from jail inmates who were serving him.
Other jail inmates who also tested positive have been quarantined in a separate barrack. The jail authorities have recommended RT PCR tests of remaining jail inmates and staff as many of them have shown suspected covid-19 symptoms.
Over 50 inmates in Banda Jail have so far tested positive for coronavirus ever since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic last year. As a precautionary measure, the jail authorities have banned meetings of inmates with their relatives till further orders.
