Another blow for don Mukhtar Ansari as ED arrests his MLA son Abbas post 9 hrs of grilling

In another blow for don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, his son Abbas was arrested by the ED on Friday night in a money laundering case. Abbas Ansari won from Mau in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election held earlier this year on the ticket of the Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, an ally of the Samajwadi Party. As per reports, the legislator's name propped up during the investigation into the Prevention of Money Laundering Act case against his father. The ED issued a lookout notice against the Mau MLA last month after he skipped summons on multiple occasions. 

Moreover, Abbas Ansari was also declared an absconder in an arms license case by a special MP-MLA court in August. Speaking to the media, his lawyer Mohammad Farooq said, "Abbas Ansari was called by the ED for the second time today and he had come around 2 pm. The questioning lasted till 11 pm after which he was arrested and taken to some unknown place. Can't tell why they have been arrested and taken away". In the run-up to the election, the EC imposed a one-day campaign ban on Ansari for threatening to "settle scores" with government officials in the scenario that the SP-led alliance forms the government.

Mukhtar Ansari's role in UP politics

Currently languishing in the Banda jail, Mukhtar Ansari was elected as an MLA from the Mau constituency and faces more than 50 criminal cases not just in UP but other states as well. In a big announcement on September 10, 2021, Mayawati declared that no mafia don including Ansari will be fielded in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election signalling her intent to counter the criminalization of politics. Incidentally, the former UP CM's decision came days after Mukhtar Ansari's brother Sigbatullah joined Samajwadi Party in the presence of Akhilesh Yadav.

While Sigbatullah Ansari is a former MLA from Mohammadabad, their other brother Afzal Ansari is a BSP MP from the Ghazipur Lok Sabha constituency. After all the Ansari brothers were expelled from BSP in 2010, they formed the Quami Ekta Dal which later merged into the Mayawati-led party ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls. In September, Ansari was sentenced to undergo a jail term of 5 years and 7 years after being convicted in an Arms Act case and for threatening and pointing a gun at a jailer respectively. Thus, he has been barred from contesting any election for the foreseeable future.