Legal expenses on Ansari, we are paying for this: CM MANN

Legal expenses on Ansari, we are paying for this: CM MANN

Chandigarh: The Punjab government is mulling recovering cost of legal expenses incurred on keeping a UP don at Ropar jail, from ministers who gave the orders, CM Bhagwant Mann said on Thursday. A police inquiry ordered by the Aam Aadmi Party government had revealed that gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was lodged in jail at Ropar for two years and three months from January 2019 to April 2021. Capt Amarinder Singh was then the chief minister of Punjab.

The inquiry, conducted by an ADGP-rank officer, has recommended proceedings under the Prevention of Corruption Act against some jail officials for allegedly taking bribe and keeping him in jail at Ropar. The inquiry was ordered by the AAP government last year.

CM Mann on Thursday said warrants were issued against at him 48 times, so as to send him to Uttar Pradesh, but to no avail. “The legal expenses on keeping him in jail here were Rs 55 lakh. We are mulling recovering these costs from those ministers who took the decision to keep him in Ropar jail,” he said.