Mukhtar Ansari gets 10-year jail term in BJP MLA murder case, his brother gets 4 years

Jailed mafia Mukhtar Ansari was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on Saturday in a kidnapping and murder case pertaining to the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur.

Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother and BSP MP Afzal Ansari was also convicted by the MP MLA court. Afzal was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine was imposed.

Earlier in the day, the wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, who was murdered in 2005 allegedly by Mukhtar and his brother Afzal, said the rule of mafias has ended in Uttar Pradesh. "I believe in the judiciary. Rule of Goondas, Mafias have ended (in the state)," Alka Rai said.

In January, police registered a murder case against gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in connection to the 2001 'Usri Chatti' gang war incident under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In December 2022, Ansari and his close aide Bhim Singh were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Gangster Court in Ghazipur in five cases related to murder and attempt to murder.

#WATCH | UP: Ghazipur's MP-MLA court to pronounce verdict today in a kidnapping and murder case against gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, his elder brother & Ghazipur BSP MP Afzal Ansari; security visuals from Ghazipur pic.twitter.com/ZAqUvSNXFT

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP)

On September 21, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court convicted Mukhtar Ansari and sentenced him for threatening jailer SK Awasthi and pointing a pistol at him. The case dates to 2003 when Lucknow district prison jailer SK Awasthi lodged an FIR saying that he was threatened to order a search of the people who came to meet Ansari in prison.

On September 23, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court sentenced him to five years in a case registered in 1999 under the Gangster Act. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Mukhtar in this 23-year-old case.

Ansari is also under ED scanner in connection with at least 49 criminal cases booked against him including those on charges of land grabbing, murder and extortion.

(With ANI inputs)