Don-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari fails to appear before court

Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, June 20 (UNI) Don-turned-Independent MLA from Mau Mukhtar Ansari today failed to appear before the court in a case related to an attack on a senior police officer.

The Ghazipur jail superintendent informed fast track court (I) judge S N Singh about Mukhtar's ill-health.

Meanwhile, the court fixed charges against two other accused Mahendra Jaiswal and Haider Ali Tiger, who were present during the hearing. Charges against the MLA had already been fixed on June 12.

The court also posted the next date of hearing the case for July 7.

In 1996, Mukhtar and his aides had fired upon the then Ghazipur additional police superintendent Uday Shankar Jaiswal when he signalled the MLA's motorcade to stop during a routine vehicle checking.

On being pursued by the police, the accused had fled, leaving their vehicles behind.

When Mukhtar was accused in the Mau communal riots case last year, he cancelled his bail and went to jail on October 25, 2005.

Mukhtar, his elder brother and ruling Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari and their brother-in-law Ejaz are also prime accused in the murder case case of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai.

Rai, an MLA from Mohammadabad Assembly constituency in Ghazipur district, and his seven supporters were shot dead on November 29 last year.

They were ambushed near the Ballia-Ghazipur border by several motorcycle-borne miscreants armed with sophisticated weapons.

Later, an FIR was lodged against 10 people including Mukhtar, Afzal and notorious east Uttar Pradesh gangster Munna Bajrangi in connection with the killing. Afzal surrendered in the court on December 8.

UNI XC/VS AK DB2059