Three plots of land worth Rs 7.5 crore of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh will be soon attached under the Gangsters Act, Mau Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Tribhuvan Nath Tripathi said on Saturday, news agency PTI reported.
Tripathi said that Ansari had bought three plots of land in the name of his mother using the money earned from his “criminal activities”, adding that the district administration has issued orders for the attaching the plots under the provisions of Gangster Act.
Ansari, a five-time former MLA, is currently lodged in a jail in Banda, Uttar Pradesh. A native of Ghazipur in eastern UP, Ansari represented the Mau Sadar seat five times – twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate and thrice as Independent.
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On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate had attached seven immovable assets of Ansari under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The properties, provisionally attached under PMLA, are worth Rs 1.48 crore (registry value) while their circle rate at the time of registration was Rs 3.42 crore, the federal agency said in a statement. The former MLA was questioned by the ED last year in connection with the case.
In August, the ED had conducted raids at multiple locations in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi as part of the money laundering probe against him and his alleged associates. Searches were conducted in Ghazipur, Lucknow and Delhi.
Ansari is under the ED scanner for at least 49 criminal cases booked against him, including those on charges of land grabbing, murder and extortion.
Also Read: Former MLA Mukhtar Ansari gets five-year jail under Gangsters Act in 1999 case
On 21 September, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had sentenced him to seven years imprisonment in the 19-year-old case after finding him guilty of threatening and pointing a revolver at the jailer while he was lodged in Lucknow district jail in 2003, The Indian Express reported.
