There is hardly anything black and white about crime lords -- past or present.
While one section of people who had benefited from a gangster's actions and protection swear by his name and give continued loyalty and political support to him, those having suffered at his hands celebrate the don's end. The rise and fall of criminal-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari is a typical story of how untrammelled ambition combined with criminal intentions, leads to popularity, political rise, arrogance and eventual decline.
Ansari had been active in crime since 1986 and subsequently in politics a decade later in 1996, while the passage of more than a dozen governments/administrations in Uttar Pradesh saw him rise and further rise. He faced over 65 criminal cases but his first conviction took place in 2022 and the latest in March this year. The cases included crimes such as forgery, murder, extortion, and anti-social activities. Remarkably, it was only after the BJP government came into power in 2017 with Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister, that things started to change for the dreaded don, although he had been in jail since 2005, including a stay in a Punjab jail from 2019 to 2021.
His death following a heart attack in a hospital in Banda once again highlights the complex intertwining of crime, benefaction and politics.The gravity of the cases against Ansari is common knowledge in UP among police officials and the bureaucracy. His name evoked awe and fear in vast parts of UP, such as the districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Ballia and beyond the state. While much has been written and is known about his political journey and criminal activities, a few incidents stand apart and underline his sheer audacity.
MLA's murder
The most sensational among the cases against Ansari was the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in November 2005. The killers fired more than 600 rounds from AK-47 guns to kill Rai and six others in Ghazipur. Many eye-witnesses in this case also died under mysterious circumstances and in April 2023, a court in Ghazipur convicted and sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years imprisonment for this crime. Rai's wife Alka and son Piyush, and several of their supporters, celebrated the news of Ansari's death, even as politicians from the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and AIMIM expressed condolences.
People who met him and benefited from his action remember him as a towering personality, mostly clad in white, with an aura of power enhanced by a thick, upturned moustache.Even when he was wheelchair-bound, he dressed in white, although the visuals from Banda jails showed him much emaciated and weak. He owned a collection of high-end cars and SUVs, and till some years ago, whenever he visited Lucknow, his presence was marked by the sight of huge black cars all having similar numbers driving in a row.
An extraordinary example of his inter-state clout was his stay in a jail in Ropar (also known as Rupnagar) where he was brought on a production warrant in January 2019 in a case of extortion of Rs 10 crores from a builder of Mohali.
Notably, the UP government had sent more than 20 reminders to the then Congress government in Punjab headed by Captain Amarinder Singh for Ansari's custody and finally it approached the Supreme Court, alleging that Punjab government was protecting Ansari. The top court on March 26, 2021, directed Punjab to hand over Ansari's custody to the UP government within two weeks. The Punjab government had been avoiding Ansari's transfer from Ropar to UP for nearly two years, citing Ansari's medical condition. Ansari remained wheelchair-bound whenever photographed during this period.On April 6, 2021, he was transferred to UP amid high drama and high security.
Extensive empire
An idea of the size and extent of Ansari's empire can be had from the fact that the UP Police have, so far, confiscated and demolished properties valued at over Rs 608 crore belonging to him.
His empire spread across numerous districts of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab. Nearly 300 of his associates have faced legal action in the past few years.
A report in June last year had said that the Income Tax department, under Project Panther, had unearthed several benami properties of Mukhtar Ansari, and their number was more in Punjab and other states than in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 50 benami properties belonging to Ansari and in the name of his aide Ganesh Dutt Mishra worth over Rs 250 crore had been identified.
As with most such high-profile criminals-turned politicians, Ansari enjoyed the hospitality of most political parties except the BJP. He had been a member of the UP assembly five times -- in 1996 from BSP, as an Independent in 2002, 2007, in 2012 from his own party Qaumi Ekta Dal and then in 2017 from BSP, which he had re-joined.
Although Mukhtar Ansari never joined the Samajwadi Party, he was always welcome to do so, and the party too supported him and his family in other ways. His brother Afzal Ansari is a Samajwadi Party MP from Ghazipur and the party has nominated him from the same seat for the coming election. Mukhtar has two sons and one of them, Abbas Ansari, is the current MLA from Mau from Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP.)
It is a measure of the role such criminals play in the lives of people seeking a benefactor, that despite the long history sheet and list of criminal charges, there were scenes of grief as a huge crowd collected as his body was brought to Ghazipur. The fact that an inquiry has been ordered into circumstances leading to his death, shows the quick damage-control exercise by the state government. As far as the coming election is concerned, Ansari death may impact the voting by people of his community in Azamgarh and Bhadohi (May 25) and in Ghosi, Ballia, Ghazipur and Varanasi (June 1.)
Ansari's death marks the end of an era of criminals-turned politicians in eastern UP. In April last year, Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, both dreaded criminals enjoying political patronage, were shot dead while being taken to a hospital in Prayagraj.
(Ratan Mani Lal is a senior journalist based in Uttar Pradesh.)
