Police have arrested Samajwadi Party leader Faraz Khan allegedly for helping gangster Mukhtar Ansari's son Abbas Ansari and his wife Nikhat Ansari in criminal activities in jail, officials said.
"Faraz Khan is SP's district general secretary. He allegedly played a pivotal role in abetting and helping the accused in criminal activities and also arranging the logistics and hideouts. The police arrested him on Monday evening," DIG Vipin Kumar said.
The development came days after jailed MLA Abbas Ansari's wife Nikhat Bano was arrested with two cellphones when she visited the prison for allegedly providing "undue help" to her husband.
However, the police said that Mr Ansari would be strictly monitored in jail and for this, body-worn cameras and drones have been sent to Kasganj jail.
"Five bodyworn cameras and one drone camera were given to Kasganj jail. Prison personnel stationed around Abbas's barrack will wear body-worn cameras. Aerial surveillance of Kasganj jail will be carried out with a drone camera," DG Jail Anand Kumar said.
He further said that the jail personnel stationed around Abbas will be changed every month.
"The staff deployed in Kasganj jail will be reviewed on one month's roster," he added.
Abbas Ansari is the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA from Mau Sadar seat.
On February 10, Nikhat Ansari and her driver, Riyaz, were arrested for allegedly meeting her husband by "improper means".
Mukhtar Ansari's son and Mau Sadar MLA Abbas Ansari is accused in a fraud case of transfer of arms licence and an arrest warrant was issued by Lucknow Court following it.
Earlier 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 rejected the anticipatory bail application of Abbas Ansari.
The court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him in the case registered at the Mahanagar police station in Lucknow in October 2019.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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