Mukhtar Ansari sentenced to 10 years, brother Afzal to 4 years in jail for kidnapping and murder

Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur MP MLA court on Saturday convicted gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari sentencing him to ten years of jail term in a kidnapping and murder case and also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

The court also convicted his brother and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari under the Gangster Act and sentenced him to four-year imprisonment. Ansari was virtually produced before the court via a video conference call while his brother Afzal Ansari was present in the court.

Earlier in the day, security was tightened ahead of the hearing. In January this year, the police registered a murder case against Ansari in connection with the 2001 “Usri Chatti” gang war incident. A case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against Ansari at the Mohammadabad Police Station in Ghazipur.

Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnanand Rai was allegedly murdered by Mukhtar Ansari and Afzal Ansari in Ghazipur in 2005. His wife Alka Rai said that the rule of the mafia has ended in Uttar Pradesh and that she has faith in the judiciary. “I believe in the judiciary. Rule of Goondas, Mafias have ended (in the state),” she said.

The Allahabad High Court earlier on January 18 dismissed the March 15 order of the Ghazipur MP-MLA Court, which gave Ansari permission to be kept in a superior-class jail in Banda. Ansari and his associate Bhim Singh were sentenced to ten years imprisonment in December last year in five cases related to murder and attempt to murder.

Earlier in September this year, a Lucknow bench of the Allahabad Court awarded Ansari with a jail-term of five years in a case registered under the Gangster Act, dating back to 1999.Afzal Ansari defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Manoj Sinha in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and secured a total of 566082 votes.