So far eight persons have been arrested in this connection, officials said. (Representational)
About Rs 6 lakh cash, a car and two mobile phones were recovered from the houses of eight jail officials who were arrested in connection with the illegal meeting of MLA Abbas Ansari and his wife Nikhat Bano in a prison official's room in Ragauli Jail, a senior police official said.
Chitrakoot Jail Superintendent Ashok Kumar Sagar and jailor Santosh Kumar were arrested on March 2 in connection with the meeting of Ansari and his wife in the deputy jailor's room. Sagar, Kumar and jail warder Jagmohan were produced before a special court of the Prevention of Corruption Act on Monday and the police recovered Rs 6 lakh cash, a car and two mobile phones from their possession, Ms Shukla said.
"In the probe so far, it has emerged that these officials had shown leniency owing to greed for cash and under the influence of Ansari," she said.
"Without a slip, Nikhat and the driver Niyaz Ahmad used to meet him (Abbas) in the room of deputy jailor Chandrakala. At this point in time, warder Jagmohan Singh would monitor activities inside and outside the jail," the SP added.
The warder brought Rs 6 lakh cash from the house of canteen supplier Navneet Sachan and distributed it to these officials, she said.
The biggest reason to facilitate the illegal meeting of Ansari and his wife was the greed for huge cash amounts and costly gifts, she said.
On February 10, District Magistrate Abhishek Anand and Superintendent of Police Vrinda Shukla raided the district jail on getting information about the meeting of Ansari and his wife as well as his driver Ahmad in contravention of rules.
Many mobile phones and other materials, including foreign currency, were found in possession of Nikhat, Additional Superintendent of Police Chakrapani Tripathi had said, adding that both Nikhat and Ahmad were arrested on February 11 and taken on remand by police on February 17.
Ansari, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA from Mau and son of jailed mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, has been in prison in a money laundering case for the last three months.
During his stay in the jail, Ansari got full cooperation from the jail superintendent, jailor, deputy jailor and warder, SP Shukla said.
"The probe team recovered Rs 4 lakh from the residence of the jail superintendent and Rs 1.80 lakh from the residence of the jailor along with a car and two mobile phones," the SP informed.
The sequence of giving cash and gifts went on a number of times, and information about this is being gathered. "As of now, we have come to know that around Rs 6 lakh were given on February 7," she said.
According to the SP, the probe is going on, and more names including those of officials and staff of the jail may also come up.
Meanwhile, on February 20, police caught Samajwadi Party leader Faraz Khan and Navneet Sachan who had helped the trio and sent them to Lucknow jail four days later.
On the basis of a complaint lodged by the sub-inspector in-charge of the Ragauli Jail police station, Shyamdev Singh, an FIR was registered against five people -- Nikhat Bano, Ahmad, Jail Superintendent Ashok Sagar, the deputy jailor and a constable.
So far eight persons have been arrested in this connection.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)