Jailed UP mafia strongman Mukhtar Ansari was awarded 10 years in rigorous imprisonment (RI) along with a penalty of ₹5 lakh by a court in Ghazipur in case of gangsters act on Thursday.
The similar sentence was also pronounced for his associate Bhim Singh.
While Singh was produced physically before the special MP-MLA court in Ghazipur, Ansari appeared through video conferencing. He is currently lodged in a jail in Banda district.
Judge Durgesh Pandey convicted Ansari in the Gangsters Act case registered in 1996.
“There were five criminal cases under this Gangsters Act case, including two each from Ghazipur and Varanasi, and one in Chandauli. He has been convicted in the Varanasi case related to the murder of former MLA Awdhesh Rai,” public prosecutor Neeraj Shrivastava told media persons.
Thirteen out of 19 eyewitnesses testified during the trial, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police.
In September, a court awarded five-year rigorous imprisonment and levied a fine of ₹50,000 on the jailed don-turned politician in connection with the murder of jail superintendent RK Tiwari in 1999. Tiwari was killed in the busy Hazratganj area of Lucknow in February that year. It was the first case of his conviction.
At least 59 cases have been filed against him, which are in different stages of trial.
On Wednesday, December 14, the Prayagraj unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) took custody of Ansari in a money laundering case which was lodged against him in 2021. Ansari, 59, was produced before the court on the basis of a production warrant and was taken into custody by the ED. The agency had earlier recorded his statement in the Banda jail.
His son Abbas, a legislator, and brother-in-law Atif Raza were earlier arrested by the ED in connection with the case.
The directorate has issued a lookout notice against Ansari’s wife Afshan.
Mukhtar Ansari, a former legislator, is facing nearly 50 cases of land grabbing, murder, extortion, murder, and attempt to murder in various districts of Uttar Pradesh.