On 29th April 2023, the MP-MLA court of Ghazipur sentenced mafia Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years in prison. Mukhtar Ansari will also have to pay a fine of Rs. 5 lakhs. The court will also pronounce the punishment for Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari shortly. Government advocate Neeraj Srivastava represented the State.
A case under Gangsters Act was registered against Afzal Ansari on the basis of the case registered against him in connection with the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. Ansari was booked for his involvement in the kidnapping of Vishwa Hindu Parishad office-bearer and coal tycoon Nandkishore Rungta in 1996 and the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005. In 2007, a case was registered against the two brothers at Muhammadabad police station.
The court has sentenced Mukhtar Ansari, who is lodged in Banda jail, to 10 years in jail. If Afzal Ansari gets the same punishment, then his Lok Sabha membership will also come to an end. He is a Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Ghazipur. Under the Representation of the People Act, a member of the House loses his membership if he is sentenced to more than two years in jail.
Afzal Ansari was earlier acquitted in the Krishnanand Rai murder case due to the retraction of witnesses. Mukhtar Ansari was initially acquitted in both Krishnanand Rai and Nandkishore Rungta murder cases. Both the mafia brothers were acquitted after witnesses retracted their statements.
Alka Rai, the wife of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, remarked just before this decision was pronounced. She said, “I believe in the judiciary. The era of goons, mafias is over. They will either stay in jail or perish.”
Mukhtar Ansari was earlier given a seven-year prison sentence in September of last year by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court for intimidating a jailer by abusing, pointing a pistol at him, and threatening to kill him in 2003. Shortly after, he was sentenced to five years in prison and was given a 50,000 fine under the Gangsters Act.
