An MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years imprisonment in a case filed under the Gangsters Act in 2010, reported The Indian Express.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Arvind Kumar also directed Ansari, a former MLA, to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh. The case was in connection with the killing of a teacher named Kapildev Singh and an attempt to kill a trader named Meer Hasan in 2009. The case was registered under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.
This is his sixth conviction since September 2022. The former five-time MLA, who is lodged in the Banda district jail, has a total of 65 cases against him, including that of murder and attempt to murder.
The court also sentenced Sonu Yadav, a member of Ansari’s gang, to five years in prison in the 2010 case and fined him Rs two lakh.
“Ansari appeared before the court through video-conferencing on Friday. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him. Rs 2 lakh penalty was imposed on Sonu Yadav,” said Additional District Government Counsel of Ghazipur Neeraj Srivastava.
Sonu, who earlier was out on bail, was brought to the court from the Ghazipur district jail where he was lodged since Thursday since he was taken into custody after his conviction.
Mukhtar Ansari’s convictions
In June, a Varanasi court in Uttar Pradesh convicted Mukhtar Ansari and sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder of local politician Awadhesh Rai outside his house at Maldiya in 1991. Awadhesh Rai, 30, a businessman, was the elder brother of Congress leader Ajay Rai.
On April 29, Ansari was sentenced to four-year jail under the Gangsters Act along with his elder brother Afzal.
On September 21, 2022, the Allahabad High Court had sentenced him to seven years in prison in a 2003 case of assault on a jailer.
A day later, the HC had sentenced him to five years in jail in a 1999 case under the Gangsters Act.
On December 15, a Ghazipur district court sentenced Mukhtar and his alleged associate Bheem Singh to 10-year imprisonment in a 1996 case under the Gangsters Act.