LUCKNOW: Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, 60, was awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment by the Ghazipur MP/MLA court on Friday in connection with the 13-year-old Gangster Act case lodged against him in 2010 after the murder of a teacher Kapil Deo Singh under Karanda police station area of Ghazipur in 2009 and an attempt to murder case in 2010 in which he was accused as a key conspirator.
The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the jailed gangster while his close aide Sonu Yadav was given a rigorous imprisonment of five years with a penalty of Rs 2 lakh.
This was the sixth conviction in the last 13 months of Mukhtar Ansari who is presently lodged in Banda jail. The Ghazipur MP/MLA Court had convicted Ansari on Thursday in the Gangster Case of 2010.
Ansari, a five-time MLA, has over 60 criminal cases of murder, kidnapping, abduction, extortion, intimidation, illegal arms possession, etc. lodged against him.
As per Ghazipur additional district government counsel (criminal) Neeraj Srivastava, Kapil Deo Singh was a resident of Sabua. After the murder of Kapil Deo Singh in 2009 and attempt to murder of Mir Hasan, police registered a case under the Gangster Act against Mukhtar Ansari based on the complaints in the two cases.
Ansari was earlier convicted by Varanasi MP/MLA court on June 5 this year and was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Awadesh Rai, the elder brother of former Congress MLA and present UP Congress president Ajay Rai.
On April 29, 2023, 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 abduction-murder of BJP leader Kishore Rungta on January 22, 1997.
In the 2007 case, Mukhtar and his MP brother Afzal Ansari were convicted and slapped with a 10-year and four-year sentence, respectively. The court had imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh on Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari.
The UP special DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar said the sentencing of Mukhtar Ansari, a former MLA, 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.
Ansari’s first conviction in the last 13 months was held by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court which had sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment on September 21, 2022, for threatening the jailor of the Lucknow district jail in 2003.
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. He was awarded two years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000. His third conviction was also in a Gangster Act case registered in Ghazipur district in 1999, wherein a local court sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him on December 15, 2022.
Ansari was convicted for the first time by a Delhi court and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on February 4, 2003 in a 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.
According to UP police authorities, so far, properties over worth Rs 300 crore owned by Ansari and his gang members have been confiscated under the provisions of the Gangster Act. His properties worth Rs 284.77 lakh were demolished, and illegal possessions were freed from Ansari and his men.