Gangster-turned- politician Mukhtar Ansari’s brother has alleged that some police officers had forced doctors at the Banda jail hospital to give him a fitness certificate and discharge him within hours of his admission on March 24.

Mukhtar, 63, died four days later of a cardiac arrest when he was taken to another hospital when he lost consciousness.

Afzal Ansari, member of Parliament from Ghazipur in east Uttar Pradesh, told reporters at his home in Mahmoodabad on Monday: “He was taken there (hospital) at 4am and kept in the ICU for six hours. Some officers of the UP police visited the hospital soon and forced the doctors to write that he was fit. Then the authorities took him back to jail in a wheelchair. According to the rule, he should have been kept in the hospital on observation for 72 hours.”

Afzal, a Bahujan Samaj Party MP, is seeking reelection from the Samajwadi Party.

Serving a life term in two cases, five-term MLA Mukhtar was taken to Rani Durgavati Medical College from Banda prison on March 28 and died there during treatment.

“We have buried him with all care in case his body is exhumed and examined in future because we have confirmed information that he was poisoned. He knew this and had told us over phone two days before his death. Since he wrote an application to the court through his counsel a week before his death, the state government had suspended a jailer and two deputy jailers of the prison. The government didn’t want the jail authorities to allow any meeting of the advocates with Mukhtar,” Afzal said.

“The government thinks that the game is over with Mukhtar’s death, but it has actually started now. This inquiry will reach a conclusion,” he said.