On June 5 this year, an MP-MLA court in Varanasi handed a life sentence to Mukhtar Ansari for the murder of Awadesh Rai, the older brother of Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Rai.

Lucknow/Varanasi (UP): A special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur, Friday, convicted gangster-politician in a 2010 case and sentenced the former MLA to 10 years in prison. This is Ansari’s sixth conviction in the last 13 months.

On Thursday, the Ghazipur MP/MLA court found Ansari guilty under the angster Act lodged against him in 2010 after the murder of one Kapil Dev Singh under Karanda police station limits of Ghazipur district in 2009 and in the 2010 attempt to murder case of one Mir Hasan in which Ansari was named as one of the key conspirators.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had registered under the Gangster Act following the murder of Kapil Dev Singh in 2009 and attempt to murder of Mir Hasan– residents of Sabua and Mohammadabad in Ghazipur, respectively.

With today’s conviction, Ansari has been convicted in six separate cases registered against him in the last 13 months. The mafia leader has been in jail since 2005.

Earlier, on June 5 this year, an MP-MLA court in Varanasi handed a life sentence to Mukhtar Ansari for the murder of Awadesh Rai, the older brother of Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Rai.

On August 3, 1991, Rai was sprayed with bullets when he and brother Ajay were standing outside their house in the Lahurabeer locality of Varanasi. The five assailants, who came in a van, opened fire on Rai, who was then declared brought dead by the hospital. Rai’s killing was said to be the fallout of Ansari’s enmity with another gangster-politician Brijesh Singh, with whom Rai was said to be close.

On April 29, the Ghazipur MP/MLA court had sentenced Ansari to 10 years of imprisonment in another case, registered against him under the Gangster Act in 2007 in connection with the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai on November 29, 2005, and the kidnapping-murder of BJP leader and Kishore Rungta on January 22, 1997.

“In the 2007 case, Mukhtar and his MP brother Afzal Ansari were convicted and slapped with 10-year and four-year prison terms, respectively. The court had imposed a fine of five lakh rupees and one lakh rupees on Mukhtar and Afzal,” said a senior police official.

Uttar Pradesh Police Special Director General (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar, said the sentencing of Mukhtar Ansari in long pending cases was possible only due to the effective monitoring of prosecution officials as well as the strong commitment and zero political interference in action against criminal elements.

Kumar added Ansari’s first conviction in the last 13 months was awarded by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. He was slapped with seven years of imprisonment on September 21, 2022, for threatening the jailor of the Lucknow district jail in 2003.

He said the jailor had lodged an FIR against Ansari at the Alambagh police station of Lucknow for issuing threats when he screened people who came to meet Ansari in the jail, and even pointed a gun at him.

Ansari’s second conviction was done by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court that was hearing a Gangster Act case registered against the ex-MLA in 1999, Kumar added.

In the case, which was registered at the Hazratganj police station of the state capital, Ansari was awarded two years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000.

He was convicted for first time by a Delhi court and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on February 4, 2003, in Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) case lodged against him on December 10, 1993. The Supreme Court later set aside the Delhi court conviction and acquitted him on April 21, 2005.

Notably, the state police, so far, have confiscated properties over worth Rs 300 crore owned by Ansari and his gang members, under the provisions of the Gangster Act. Properties worth Rs 284.77 lakh were demolished, and illegal possessions were freed from Ansari and his men, Kumar added.

(With IANS inputs)