Krishnanand Rai murder case: Yogi govt to appeal against Mukhtar Ansari's acquittal

Lucknow, July 4: A day after Jailed Mafia Don Mukhtar Ansari, his brother Afzal Ansari along with others acquitted by Delhi CBI Court in Krishnanand Rai murder case, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to file an appeal in the High Court against the acquittal.

"Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the judgement in the Krishnanand Rai case. The government shall examine the judgement and file appeal in the high court," Principal Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi said on Thursday.

Rai was murdered on 29 November 2005, while attending a family wedding in his native village. He had been made aware of a death threat by Special Task Force officers, who warned him of hired killers at the residence of Mukhtar Ansari, a local politician and former gangster.

The court in Delhi acquitted Ansaris and others on Wednesday as all the eyewitnesses and material witnesses turned hostile. It said had the prosecution witnesses not turned hostile, the outcome of the trial would have been different and highlighted the absence of a witness protection scheme.

The CBI court held that the investigators failed to prove the charges by not bringing enough evidence against the persons who were accused of carrying out the gruesome killing of seven persons, including Rai.

The trial was transferred from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2013 on a plea filed by Alka Rai, the wife of Krishnanand Rai who was an MLA from Mohammadabad Assembly seat when he was killed on November 29, 2005, along with six others.

Mukhtar Ansari, who is MLA from Mau in Uttar Pradesh, has several criminal cases against him, including that of murder and abduction. His brother Afzal Ansari was elected from Ghazipur constituency in the recent Lok Sabha election. Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had directed a CBI inquiry into Rai's killing.