Mukhtar Ansari has been convicted in several other criminal cases.
New Delhi:
Jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari was today convicted by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi in a 32-year-old murder case. A five-time MLA, Ansari has been charged with the murder of a Congress leader in 1991, when he was starting to gain political prominence. On August 3, 1991, Congress leader and brother of former MLA Ajay Rai, Awadhesh Rai, was shot dead outside Ajay Rai’s house in Varanasi. Mukhtar Ansari was not an MLA when he committed the crime. Security was tightened at the court complex ahead of the verdict.
Mr Rai had named Mukhtar Ansari, Bhim Singh, former MLA Abdul Kalim, and two others, in the FIR. Ansari has also been convicted in several criminal cases in the past.
The Varanasi MP MLA court concluded the hearing after arguments on May 19, reserved its order, and fixed June 5 as the date to deliver it.
A five-term MLA, Mukhtar Ansari is already serving a 10-year jail term in another kidnapping and murder case. He was convicted in April.
The investigation of the case was handed over to the CB-CID. Curiously, during the hearing of the case in June 2022, it was found that the case diary had disappeared. The entire case was heard on the basis of photocopies. This is the first case where the verdict has been pronounced on the basis of duplicate papers.
Mukhtar Ansari won assembly elections five times – 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017. The last three victories came while he was in jail.
His son Abbas Ansari won the Uttar Pradesh assembly election from his stronghold Mau Sadar in 2022 from the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
Mukhtar Ansari’s name first came to the fore in the 1988 case of the murder of local contractor Sachchidanand Rai. He is believed to have stepped into the world of crime after this murder, and a long list of victims followed. Almost 60 criminal cases — of land grabbing, murder and extortion — are registered against him.
His was named in the murder of his arch-rival Tribhuvan Singh’s brother, head constable Rajendra Singh, outside Varanasi police lines. In 1991, Mukhtar Ansari was caught by the police in Chandauli, but allegedly shot two policemen and escaped.
Mukhtar Ansari then started interfering in government contracts, liquor contracts, and the illegal coal trade. In 1996, his name popped up again in the murderous attack on the then Assistant Superintendent of Police Uday Shankar Jaiswal, who had signalled his vehicle to stop. Ansari and his aides allegedly fired indiscriminately.
In 1996, Mukhtar Ansari became MLA for the first time on a BSP ticket. Struggling to reign in the mafia don, the BSP chief even expelled him from the party. After the kidnapping of Purvanchal’s biggest coal businessman Rungta in 1997, he became notorious as a criminal. His rival mafia boss Brijesh Singh in 2002 reportedly got Mukhtar Ansari’s convoy attacked, killing three people from his gang. Brajesh Singh was injured in this gang war.
Mukhtar Ansari was also accused in what is perhaps the most sensational political murder in Uttar Pradesh’s history. He allegedly killed BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai with an AK-47 rifle in November 2005. 400 bullet shells were reportedly recovered from the spot. As many as 21 bullets were recovered from Rai’s body.
In 2010, Ansari was booked for the murder of Ram Singh Maurya. Maurya was a witness to the murder of Mannat Singh, a local contractor allegedly killed by Ansari’s gang in 2009.
In 2008, Ansari was accused of assaulting Dharmendra Singh, a witness in a murder case. In 2012, the Maharashtra government imposed the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on him for allegedly running an organised crime syndicate.
In October 2005, violence broke out in Mau and many allegations were levelled against him, which were dismissed. However, Mukhtar Ansari surrendered before the Ghazipur police and has since been in jail. Ansari is believed to have been in the crosshairs of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath since then.
He has 61 cases registered against him, most of which are in Ghazipur. Recently, a court sentenced Mukhtar Ansari and his brother and BSP MP Afzal Ansari to imprisonment for 10 years and four years, respectively, in a 2007 Gangsters Act case. Apart from this, sentences have also been framed on him in some other cases.
Source link: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/jailed-gangster-mukhtar-ansari-convicted-in-32-year-old-murder-case-4094928