Criminal-turned-Politician Mukhtar Ansari, a jailed mafia don-cum-politician, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court of Special Judge (MP/MLA)in Varanasi, UP on Wednesday.
The charges made against him included cheating, forgery of documents, criminal conspiracy violating the Arms Act, and obtaining a double-barrel gun license in 1986. His arrest in 2024 will mark his eighth case in which the former five times Ansari has been convicted and even sentenced by a court in UP in the past two years.
On Wednesday, the Varanasi MP/MLA court handed Ansari life imprisonment under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 467(forgery of valuable security, will, etc.) and seven years under Sections 420(cheating) and 468(forgery for purpose of cheating) of IPC.
Vinay Singh, the additional district government counsel(criminal) said that Ansari appeared via video conferencing from Banda jail. His punishment has a possibility to range upto life imprisonment. Mukhtar Ansari obtained a double-barrel gun license in 1986 by forging the signatures of the then-Ghaziapur district magistrate and superintendent of police.
Mukhtar Ansari who was pronounced guilty by Awnish Gautam the Special Judge(MP/MLA Court) on Tuesday, was also sentenced to six months imprisonment under Section 30 of the Arms Act apart from the IPC sections.
All the sentences will run sequwntially. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ansari who is currently lodged in the Banda Jail.
The case was lodged at Mohammadabad police station at Ghaziapur against Ansari and others, alleging that they conspired to obtain a license for a double -barrel gun with “forged” signatures of the then district Magistrate and the Superintendent of police.
Mukhtar Ansari and his criminal case history
In December 1990, when the case of forgery came to light, a case was filed against Ansari, the then-deputy collector, the ordnance clerk Gaurishankar Srivastava, and four others. Also in 1997, a charge sheet was filed against Ansari and Gaurishankar Srivastava. Soon after the death of Srivastava, the case was dropped against him as he died during the course of the trial.
In last December, Mukhtar Ansari was sentenced to five and a half years in jail in a 26 year old case for threatening to kill a businessman in Varanasi. Last year on October 10th, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in a Gangsters Act case that was filled at Ghaziapur in 2010.
Moving forward to June 5, in 1991 murder and rioting case was filed in Varanasi where he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In another Gangsters Act, on April 29th he was sentenced to 10 years of jail in connection with the murder of the BJP MLA Krishnand Rai in 2005. In 2022 on December 15th, Ansari was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in a 1996 Gangsters Act case lodged in Ghaziapur. In the same year on September 23rd, he was sentenced to five years in jail, again in a Gangsters case lodged in Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station in 1990. On September 21, 2022, he was sentenced to seven years jail in a 2003 case of alleged assault on a public servant.
Last year an MP/MLA Court in Varanasi had sentenced Ansari to life imprisonment in the case of murder of the Congress leader, Awadesh Rai. Rai was the elder brother of UPCC president Ajay Rai and was shot on the morning of August 3,1991 while he stood in his residence in Lahurabir locality of Varanasi.
Mukhtar Ansari ,the five term former MLA, had earlier been convicted in several other serious cases by the court. Mukhtar has been elected as an MLA from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He last contested the Assembly polls in 2017.
