The crime empire of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has crumbled in the last few years but there was a time when he was one of the most dreaded names in the world of crime in Uttar Pradesh. His clout and terror were such that not only police officials but even District Magistrates and politicians feared him.
Political patronage under governments by the BSP and the SP emboldened Mukhtar at his peak. Mukhtar Ansari roamed around freely in open jeeps brandishing guns and weapons, but no one had the courage to stop him. For more than 15 years, he contested and even won elections from jail. This representative of people, booked under scores of cases of ransom, kidnapping, murders, etc., for all these years, has operated his crime syndicate with impunity from jail.
However, with BJP coming to power in the state in 2017 and Yogi Adityanath becoming the chief minister, the crackdown on Mukhtar Ansari intensified. The UP government was quick to bring in a new law aimed at dealing a blow to organised crime networks. Properties worth Rs 192 crore related to Mukhtar and his gang members were either demolished or attached.
Today the same mafia Mukhtar Ansari is lamenting in jail and is living his life in fear. Despite the fact that the court last month sentenced him to ten years in prison in the Krishnanand Rai murder case, there are still numerous cases against him awaiting judgement. The gangster had committed murders in the years 1978, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992. In this report, we have chronicled Mukhtar Ansari’s entire criminal record.
According to Uttar Pradesh’s Mau’s District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB), a case of criminal intimidation was initially filed against mafia Mukhtar Ansari in 1978 under Section 506 of the IPC. After then, the pace of his crimes rose to the point that he began spreading terror by executing high-profile kidnappings, extortion, land grabbing and murders. According to a copy of DCRB data obtained by OpIndia, IPC Section 302 (murder) is attached in numerous cases registered against Mukhtar Ansari.
According to the data, 59 cases have been filed against the mafia in the last 44 years. The most recent case was filed in 2022. Though it is yet to be investigated, it is alleged that Ansari and his associates made the original case diary of the 1991 Awadhesh Rai murder case disappear in connivance with the employees of the court. It was alleged that this was done in order to linger on the trial in the case.
Notably, the police allege that the likelihood of this charge being genuine is very high, owing to the fact that case diaries of pending cases against him have previously also gone missing from the police station or police records. In fact, information on three more cases against him has been missing from DCRB records also.
The information regarding the first DCRB case that is missing from the file relates to one brought against him in 1978. The only information provided in the DCRB record is that the complaint was filed in 1978 at Saidpur, Ghazipur. Nothing else about the case is included in it apart from this. It states, in place of any more specifics, “The details of the year 1978 are not available due to its non-availability in the NCR Jild police station.”
In the same vein, the records also lack information regarding a case from 1988. In Muhammadabad, Ghazipur, this case was filed in accordance with IPC section 504,506. If you search the DCRB records, you’ll see that it says, “The details of the year 1988 are not available due to non-availability of it in the NCR Jilda police station.”
The following missing information case is also New Delhi. Here, a case was filed in 1993 under Section 5 of TADA against Mukhtar. However, according to records, neither the KG Marg police station nor the police station nearby is privy to its details.
The ease with which Mukhtar Ansari was able to have his original case diaries disappear like in all three cases that were brought against him in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh is an indication of his prior political dominance and power.
For almost four decades, mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari used his political clout and stonewalled efforts to frame charges against him even though 50 FIRs were registered and charge sheets were filed against him by police in many cases during this period.
In his 44-year of criminal history, he has so far been exonerated in 18 cases. He was once accused of breaking the NSA Act, but the DM exonerated him in that case too. After that, he was cleared by the police in 8 other cases.
In addition to all this, records of four cases filed against him went missing from the police station. Three cases filed against him were withdrawn. 21 cases are still pending in court, out of which, the court hasn’t even accepted the charge sheet in 2 cases.
