BALLIA, India, 5 April, 2021 (TON): Uttar Pradesh minister Anand Swaroop Shukla on Sunday claimed that gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari received foreign funding as he presented himself as “savior of Muslims”.

Speaking to reporters here, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs hit out at the former regimes of the SP, BSP and Congress for not doing enough to punish people like Ansari.

“The former governments of the state used to shield him (Ansari) for Muslim appeasement. As a result of this, his ‘mafia raj' continued. The Yogi Adityanath government is making efforts to punish him, and has broken his financial empire,” he said.

"Time has come for Ansari to get the punishment for the crimes he has committed. That is why he is feeling afraid now. He got foreign funding as he used to present himself as savior of Muslims," Shukla said but failed to give any proof for his claim.

Punjab's home department had recently asked the Uttar Pradesh government to take Ansari's custody from Rupnagar jail on April 8, with BSP MP Afzal Ansari on Sunday saying that his brother's "safety" is now the responsibility of the judiciary and the Adityanath dispensation.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has also set up a SIT to probe into the issue of fake documents of the ambulance which was used to ferry Ansari from the Rupnagar jail to a Mohali court recently.