On 15th December (Friday), a Varanasi MP/MLA court sentenced mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to five and a half years in prison for threatening a witness in the kidnapping of the Vishva Hindu Parishad treasurer. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Ansari for threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, the brother of coal businessman and VHP treasurer Nand Kishore Rungta, who was kidnapped by Ansari’s henchman from his Varanasi office on 22nd January 1997.
This was the jailed mafia’s seventh conviction since September last year. Ansari, who appeared through video conferencing, was visibly upset after hearing the ruling. Reportedly he began pleading with the judge. When Judge Ujjwal Upadhyay started pronouncing the sentence, Ansari sat with his head down and his hands on his forehead. Following this, he pleaded before the judge, saying, ‘Judge Sahab, please have mercy so that all my sentences proceed simultaneously.’ However, in the decision given by the court, it was already mentioned.
Notably, Nand Kishore Rungta, a coal businessman from Jawahar Nagar of Bhelupur police station area of Varanasi, was murdered after being kidnapped on 22nd January 1997. Reports say that Nand Kishore was killed even after the family paid a ransom of Rs 1.25 crore to the kidnapper. After this, on the evening of 5th November 1997, Nand Kishore Rungta’s brother Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the case, and his family received bomb threats on his landline not to file a complaint with the police.
However, the victim’s family lodged an FIR in the Bhelupur police station of Varanasi in which the court pronounced its verdict.
Strikingly, in May this year, the OpIndia team visited several districts in Purvanchal that faced the severe brunt of violence at the hands of Ansari and his henchman. During the visit, OpIndia spoke with BJP MLA Sushil Singh who made several shocking claims and called Mukhtar a traitor.
‘Mukhtar Ansari is not only a criminal but also a traitor‘
It is important to note that different courts have served Mukhtar Ansari with punishment ranging from 2 years to life imprisonment in different cases. At present, hearings are underway in courts for 21 out of the 65 cases registered against him. He is currently lodged in Banda jail and is being kept under strict surveillance.
In May, the OpIndia team had visited various districts of Purvanchal including Varanasi, Mau, Ghazipur, and Chandauli. These districts were once badly affected by the crimes of Mukhtar Ansari. During this Purvanchal tour, the OpIndia team met Sushil Singh, BJP MLA from Chandauli’s Saidaraja Assembly.
Speaking with OpIndia, BJP MLA Sushil Singh had said that Mukhtar Ansari is not only a criminal but also a traitor. He asserted that Mukhtar Ansari not only committed various crimes but also committed offenses like stealing the army’s LMG (Light Machine Gun). Notably, Ansari reportedly bought the army’s LMG (Light Machine Gun) from an Army deserter in 2004 to penetrate Krishnanand Rai’s bullet-proof SUV.
Haven’t seen the death of loved ones, so don’t feel the pain
BJP MLA Sushil further told OpIndia that Mukhtar and his family have been involved in crime along with politics. He said that Mukhtar continued committing crimes because no one in his family suffered untimely death as a cost of his criminal enterprise, haece he doesn’t know how it feels to pay the price of violence.
SP government boosted the morale of criminals
BJP MLA Sushil Singh told OpIndia that Mukhtar Ansari got at least 100 of his political opponents killed. It is alleged that these murders continued unabated under the patronage of the Samajwadi Party government. According to Sushil Singh, Mukhtar Ansari primarily targeted Hindus, orchestrating plans in which Hindus killed Hindus.
‘The then Vice President Hamid Ansari used to call the police station‘
BJP MLA Sushil Singh added that while the Samajwadi Party shielded and advocated the crimes of Mukhtar Ansari from Lucknow, the Congress did the same and protected him from Delhi. According to Sushil Singh, the Congress Party had imposed MCOCA on Mukhtar’s entire family at the latter’s instructions.
Naming the then Vice President Hamid Ansari, the BJP MLA Singh alleged that Hamid Ansari used to lobby for Mukhtar by dialing the police station. Additionally, Hamid Ansari also missed his powers to register cases at the police station against those who stood against Mukhtar.
Sushil Singh further added that Mukhtar Ansari, along with his political patrons like SP and Congress, not only got his opponents murdered, but also used to break them mentally by filing many cases against them.
Sushil Singh noted that even in this bad time, he got the support of Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, based on which he continued his struggle against Mukhtar Ansari.
Mukhtar got BJP MLA’s uncle murdered
Speaking with OpIndia, BJP MLA Sushil Singh became emotional. He said that his innocent uncle Satish Singh, a farmer, was also murdered by Mukhtar Ansari. According to Sushil Singh, the murder was carried out to instill fear in the minds of people. He added that the murder of Krishnanand Rai was also done by Mukhtar Ansari to create terror.
‘My own life was under threat‘
Recalling the year 2004, Sushil Singh mentioned that during Manoj Sinha’s Lok Sabha election campaign in Ghazipur, he had visited the area for campaigning. He claimed that the police had surrounded him intending to harm him. After leaving, several BJP workers were apprehended, held in the police station, and subjected to torture. According to him, he survived because of God’s grace.
Sushil Singh also recalled the 2009 elections when there was a contest in the Lok Sabha elections in Varanasi between BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi and Mukhtar Ansari. At that time, Sushil Singh was an MLA from the Bahujan Samaj Party.
He alleges that, at Mukhtar Ansari’s behest, Mayawati imposed numerous cases on him overnight. According to him, this was done so that Sushil Singh could be murdered in the future. He admitted that at that time he was opposing Mukhtar Ansari and supporting Murli Manohar Joshi for Hindutva.
BJP MLA Sushil Singh had claimed that even though the mafia don Mukhtar Ansari has become weak due to the change of government, the roots of his crime empire are still spread across UP. Sushil Singh admitted that many victims are still hesitant to come out due to fear of Mukhtar.
