Mukhtar Ansari gets 10-year jail term in kidnapping, murder case

A court in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur convicted former gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari of kidnapping and murder, sentencing him to ten years in prison and imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh. Ansari appeared before the court via a video conference call.

Photo Credit: Mukhtar Ansari

The former MLA was charged under the Gangster Act for his involvement in the abduction of Nand Kishore Rungta, a coal industrialist and member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in 1996, and the assassination of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005.

Following the conviction, Afzal Ansari is likely to lose his Lok Sabha membership as per the Parliament rules. The rule states that any member who is sentenced to two years or more in prison is disqualified automatically. The same rule led to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi losing his MP status after he was convicted in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced to two years in jail.

On 22 November 2007, a case was filed under Gangsters Act against Afzal Ansari and Mukhtar Ansari in this regard in Muhammadabad Kotwali police station.

On 23 September 2022, prima facie charges were framed against the two.

After hearing the arguments of both the sides, the court reserved its decision which was pronounced Saturday.

Earlier, the security in Uttar Pradeh's Ghazipur was heightened ahead of the verdict in a kidnapping and murder case against Mukhtar Ansari and his elder brother and BSP MLA from the city Afzal Ansari.

Earlier in the day, wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai who was murdered in Ghazipur in 2005 allegedly by gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari said that the rule of mafia has ended in Uttar Pradesh and that she has faith in the judiciary.

"I believe in the judiciary. Rule of Goondas, Mafias have ended (in the state)," Alka Rai said, wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai who was murdered in Ghazipur in 2005.

(with PTI inputs)