The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in a money laundering case, reported PTI. The 59-year-old leader, was arrested after he was produced before a local court in Uttar Pradesh. Ansari, a five-time former MLA, was lodged in a jail at Uttar Pradesh’s Banda.
A native of Ghazipur in eastern UP, Ansari represented the Mau Sadar seat five times – twice from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and thrice as an Independent.
The ED had questioned Ansari in 2021 in connection with the money laundering case, which was initiated after multiple FIRs were registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police. Police filed two FIRs against a company called Vikas Constructions that was run by his wife, two brothers-in-law and others.
Ansari under ED scanner for over 40 cases
Ansari has been under the ED radar for at least 48 criminal cases against him, including murder and extortion. In October, the central agency had attached seven immovable assets of the former MLA worth Rs 1.48 crore.
In August, the ED had conducted multiple raids across several locations in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, including Ghazipur, Lucknow and Delhi, as part of the ongoing money laundering probe against him and his alleged associates.
Earlier, in September, the Allahabad High Court had sentenced him to seven years imprisonment in a 19-year-old case after he was proven guilty of threatening and pointing a revolver at the jailer while he was lodged at the Lucknow district jail in 2003.
In November, his son and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party MLA from Mau Abbas Ansari was also arrested by the federal probe agency, which was followed by the arrest of Mukhtar Ansari’s brother-in-law Atif Raza.