Jailed Mau MLA Abbas Ansari's Wife Nikhat Walks Out of UP Prison on Bail after SC Relief

Nikhat Ansari, who is the daughter-in-law of convicted gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and wife of his incarcerated legislator son Abbas Ansari, was released on bail from Chitrakoot Ragauli Jail late on Thursday evening. Her brother, sister-in-law, and one-year-old son reached the prison premises to receive her. Nikhat was released after 188 days as she managed to get bail from the Supreme Court on August 11.

Nikhat broke down in tears on seeing her son, a video of which has been widely circulated online. She was arrested for illegally meeting Abbas Ansari, her husband and Mau MLA, in the VIP lodge of a Chitrakoot jail for over two months. Police had recovered around Rs 20,000 in cash, a cellphone, and some foreign currency from her possession. Her driver Niyaaz was also taken into custody.

Authorities led by district magistrate Abhishek Anand and superintendent of police (SP) Vrinda Shukla raided the Chitrakoot jail and arrested Nikhat from the premises in February. None of her visits were logged into the prison register. Apart from Nikhat’s driver, seven police personnel, including jail superintendent Ashok Kumar and deputy jailer Sushil Kumar, were booked for violation of prison norms.

There were allegations that Abbas Ansari was running his businesses from jail using his wife’s phones. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA is in prison in connection with a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Following Nikhat’s arrest, he was shifted to a Kasganj jail.

Abbas’s father Mukhtar Ansari had faced similar allegations of running illegal businesses while lodged in jail.

A senior police official privy to the developments told News18 that the initial investigation revealed that Nikhat got a house on rent in Chitrakoot and often visited her husband in the district jail, situated nearly five kilometres from the city area, along with her driver Niyaz.

However, a Supreme Court division bench of justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh while granting bail to Nikhat noted that the petitioner was a woman and the mother of a one-year-old. She also appeared before a Lucknow anti-corruption court that signed off on her release orders on the condition that she only meets her husband in jail again after first getting approval from the trial court.