On Thursday (26th October), the MP-MLA court in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, declared mafia and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari guilty in a 14-year-old murder case of one Kapil Dev Singh. Ansari was booked under the Gangster Act and was declared guilty by the court as confirmed by Ansari’s lawyer Liyaqat Ali. However, the court will announce the punishment to the guilty on Friday (27th October). Another accused Sonu Yadav was also convicted in the case.
According to the reports, a case was registered against Mukhtar Ansari under the Gangster Act in Karanda police station. He was booked in the Kapil Singh murder case and was also accused of launching an attack on one Mir Hasan. While the former MLA was acquitted in the case of an attack on Mir Hasan on 17th May, he has been found guilty in the murder case of Kapil Dev Singh.
Ansari was acquitted by courts in both cases in 2011 and 2023, respectively. However, the MP/MLA court of Gazipur found him guilty in the murder case.
Kapil Dev Singh was murdered in the Suapur region which falls under the Karanda police station area. It was alleged that Mukhtar Ansari planned a conspiracy to murder Singh around 14 years ago while he was in jail. The Court heard the case today and declared Ansari guilty.
For the last more than 15 years, this former ‘lawmaker’ – ill-known more for breaking the laws rather than making one – has been lodged in jail. He contested the elections from jail. He won the elections from jail. He is known for operating his gangs from jail.
There are many cases registered against this mafia who became MLA from Mau for the 5th time in 2017. The crimes enlisted in these cases are murder, attempt to murder, armed riots, criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation, fraud for property expropriation, interference with public affairs, and willful attack to injure someone.
In the 80s, Mukhtar Ansari was involved in a gang war with another mafia Brijesh Singh. He had established his presence till Mau, Jaunpur, Ballia, and Varanasi. Mukhtar Ansari’s name first appeared in the Sachchidanand Rai murder case of 1988. Sachidanand Rai was killed in connection with a land dispute in the Ghazipur district. In this murder case, charges were leveled against Mukhtar Ansari. This was the first time that Mukhtar Ansari’s name was associated with a serious crime. However, the police could not gather any evidence in this case and Mukhtar Ansari could not be proven guilty.
The most important of the cases registered against Mukhtar Ansari is the incident of the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. It was 29 November 2005, which is still called a ‘Black Day’ by the people of Ghazipur. Krishnanand Rai was an MLA from Muhammadabad. Krishnanand Rai was killed and his six companions were also killed in this mayhem.
Unfazed by the regime, the killers fired 400 rounds of bullets. After the incident, 67 bullets were removed from the bodies of the deceased during the postmortem. Mukhtar Ansari’s name also appeared in the contractor Ajay Prakash Singh’s murder case in Mau. The witness of this murder crime was also murdered. Similarly, the witness of the Krishnanand Rai murder case also died under suspicious circumstances.
In June this year, a special MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi awarded life imprisonment to jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the 1991 Awadhesh Rai murder case. On August 3, 1991, Congress leader and brother of former MLA Ajay Rai, Awadhesh Rai, was shot dead outside Ajay Rai’s house in Varanasi. Ansari was presented before the court through video conference where the court convicted him under Sections 145 and 302m.
In the given case, Ansari continues to be in jail and the court has declared him guilty for murder of Kapil Dev Singh. The punishment will however be announced by the court on 27th October. The maximum punishment in this case is reportedly 10 years.
