NEW DELHI: A jailed politician Mukhtar Ansari from Uttar Pradesh suspicious death will be investigated by a magistrate after his family claimed he was poisoned, reports said on Friday.

A three-member team is expected to commence the investigation into his death shortly, an order by Chief Judicial Magistrate Banda said.

Mukhtar Ansari was declared dead on March 28 at a Banda hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest. However, his family claimed Ansari was being given ‘slow poison’ inside jail, which led to his demise.

His death comes nearly a year after another Muslim politician was shot dead on live TV in Uttar Pradesh.

Afzal Ansari, an MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur and brother of Mukhtar, claimed, “Mukhtar said he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison. And recently, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition was bad.”

Afzal said that during a hearing on March 21, his brother’s lawyer had told the Barabanki court that his client had allegedly been given “slow poison” in jail due to which his condition was deteriorating. The politician was hospitalised on Tuesday for 14 hours, but was released after his condition was reported as stable.

“It (post-mortem) is their procedure. I have written a letter saying that it should be done by doctors at AIIMS, Delhi. We don’t trust the medical system, the government and administration here...You know why I am saying this...Panchnama is done. District Magistrate has to make a decision. Let’s see what he decides. The post-mortem has not begun,” his son Umar Ansari said. “We hope the court will help investigate the suspicions that we are expressing. We will consult our legal team. We are confident that this is not a natural death but an orchestrated murder,” he added.