POLITICIAN
NAME: Mukhtar Ansari
DATE OF BIRTH: June 30,1963
PLACE OF BIRTH: Yusufpur, Uttar Pradesh
SIBLING(s): Third; Afzal Ansari, Shibakatulla Ansari, Mansoor Ansari
MARITAL STATUS: Married; Afsa Ansari (spouse)
CHILDREN: Two; Abbas Ansari, Umar Ansari
POLITICAL PARTY: Bahujan Samaj Party and Quami Ekta Dal
COLLEGE(s): Post Graduate College, Ghazipur.
A gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari is a Member of Legislative Assembly from Mau constituency Uttar Pradesh for a continuously five times.
For Ansari it was never too difficult to set his foot in politics owing to the fact that he is the grandson of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari an early president of Indian National Congress.
Before introducing himself in politics Ansari was a member of Makhanu Singh Gang in early 1970s, during the same period government commissioned several developmental projects in the backward Poorvanchal Area which put Mukhtar Ansari in negative spotlight.
By the 1990s he and his gang was well known for criminal activities like kidnapping, extortion rackets especially in the districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur.
After 5 years he decided to join politics through a student unio of Banaras Hindu University and a year later became an MLA. After legalising his powers Ansari challenged his long time enemy and a rival gang of Brijesh Singh, in 2002 Singh ambushed Ansari in which Singh was critical and almost considered dead which made Ansari undisputed gang leader in the entire Poorvanchal region.
Brijesh Singh later joined BJP and defeated Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari, which was later claimed by him that Krishnaanand Rai used his political influence and awarded all contracts to Brijesh Singh’s gang.
In 2007 Ansari along with his brother Afzal joined Bahujan Samaj Party allowed after they claimed that they had been falsely framed in criminal cases for fighting against the “feudal system”, and promised to refrain from participating in any crimes, this crystal clear proof given by the Ansari brothers got them the support of BSP chief Mayawati, she tried to clear their image by portraying Mukhtar Ansari as Robinhood and also called him “A messiah for the poor”.
With full sport of BSP especially the chief things were running smooth without any much interference until 2009 when Ansari fought the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi while he was still logged in jail for the murder of Kapil Dev Singh, he lost the election to BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi and was also sentenced to Ghazipur Jail.
After a series of murder crimes in the year of 2009-2010 both brothers were expelled by BSP only to welcome the brothers back in 2017 before Uttar Pradesh Legislative Election by exclaiming that BSP gives people a chance to reform themselves.
Meanwhile in 2010 the brothers formed their own political party called the Quami Ekta Dal In 2012, he was charged under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for being a member of an organised crime syndicate.
LEGAL BACKGROUND.
Mukhtar Ansari has a record-breaking number of criminal cases against him, the number tallies above 40 registered cases.
The very first criminal incident that put Ansari into the highlights were the 1970’s gang battle with Brijesh Singh, which shadowed his political life until 2008 when Brijesh was arrested in Odisha and Ansari was acquitted for attack/murder of Dharmendra Singh, a witness.
MURDERS WRITTEN IN JAIL. [1]
Mukhtar Ansari was arrested in the year 2005 for a case of communal riots in Mau when BJP MLA Krishnaanand Rai along with 6 others was shot dead in public, the attackers fired over 400 bullets from AK-47 riffles, Ansari brothers were charged for the murder of 7 people in Ghazipur’s Bharwankol on November 09th, 2005.
Rai and Ansari brothers had been rivals since the former defeated Afzal Ansari from the Mohammadabad legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh where the latter had been undefeated since 1982. Rai ended Afzal Ansari’s winning cycle in 2002.
Supplementary charge sheet was submitted by CBI corroborating involvement of brothers. The court found no merit in CBI’s submission that Rai had written to Mulayam Singh Yadav, then chief minister of UP, for enhancing his security because of threats from the Ansari brothers.
It observed that Rai “was confident of giving up his bullet proof vehicle,” which shows “that there was no real threat to him.”
This led to another murder of Dharmendra Singh a witness of the Rai murder case, but during investigation an affidavit was submitted by victim to drop proceedings against Mukhtar Ansari, he was lodged in jail for only 4 years in connection with this case.[2]
The court trial was shifted outside Uttar Pradesh in 2013 on Rai’s wife Alka Rai’s plea and is still pending in a CBI court in Delhi. In 2019 was held not guilty.
AWADHESH RAI MURDER CASE.[3]
Awadesh Rai was shot dead by armed criminals just outside his house on August 1991. He was the elder brother of SP candidate from Varanasi Ajai Rai. At Ghazipur’s Bhanwarkol police station cases were registered against him under Section 467, 468, 420, 120B of the IPC, 7 Criminal Amendment Act, 3(1) UP Gangster Act and 30 Arms Act A case was registered against him under 2/3 Gangster Act at the Hazaratganj Police Station at Lucknow while he was booked under Section 506 of IPC in Krishna Nagar case.
After 16 years a local court framed charges against two more accused in the murder of Awadesh Rai where only charges were framed and no investigation ever took place. Even after 30 years the case happens to be still pending because of lack of evidences against Ansari.
NAND KISHORE RUNGTA KIDNAPPING CASE.
Six members of Mukhtar Ansari mafia gang, including a police constable, were arrested and firearms were seized from them, one of the arrested Gurmit Singh Baba, was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of the Varanasi-based coal merchant Nand Kishore Rungta.
The arrests were affected by a Special Task Force of the state police from the posh Mahanagar area in the capital the police constable was also arrested.
Though Baba was undergoing treatment at the medical college here under police custody he was nabbed while he was travelling in a car in the Mahanagar area about five kilometres from the hospital.
All the six were allegedly members of the mafia don Mukhtar Ansari gang. Later it was found that he has been absconding after a Non-Bailable Warrant was issued against him in connection with some pending criminal cases.
Ansari was convicted for 10 years in the kidnapping and murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad national treasurer Nand Kishore Rungta by a TADA court but was later acquitted by the Supreme Court. [4]
ILLEGAL PROPERTIES.
In an operation against encroachment on government land the authorities demolished two illegal buildings owned by gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Lucknow’s posh Dalibagh area, the building had been constructed on “Nishkrant Sampatti”, belonging to people who have migrated to Pakistan, Expenses of the demolition will be recovered and a case will also be lodged, adding that the responsibility of officials under whom this illegal construction took place will be fixed.
The map of the property was not passed by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), the spokesman said. The state government recently seized properties of aides of Mukhtar Ansari, the sitting BSP MLA from Mau, and also suspended arms licences of four of his aides in Ghazipur.[5]
REFERENCES.
- https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/31-cases-against-mukhtar-ansari-between-1988-2005/656845
- https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/mukhtar-ansari-illegal-properties-demolished-in-lucknow-official-2286174
- http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/murders-mukhtar-wrote-in-jail/609041/
- https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/questions-raised-on–prosecution-dept–law–enforcing-agencies.html
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mukhtar-ansari-six-others-acquitted-in-murder-of-bjp-mla/story-6ncxTSu2Qgj9Ie6zQrEe8J.html
- Mukhtar Ansari booked in murder case. Indian Express, 2010. ↑
- A slice of Sicily by Alka Pandae. ↑
- Mukhtar Ansari vs. Central Bureau of Investigation, July 5th, 1999. ↑
- Outlook india ↑
- The Times of India ↑