In prison since 2005, Mukhtar Ansari faced 65 criminal cases, was convicted in 8 so far

Incarcerated since 2005, gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari faced over 65 criminal cases, most of them for murder, extortion, and anti-social activities that were filed across several districts of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Twenty-five of them were filed while he was in prison.

As on Thursday when the 63-year-old five-time former MLA from Mau Sadar died, 21 cases were pending against him, showing the extent of legal entanglements he was embroiled in. He was convicted in eight cases by different courts in Uttar Pradesh.

The first conviction took place in September 2022, when the Allahabad High Court overturned a trial court’s order acquitting him and sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to seven years of imprisonment in a 19-year-old case where he was found guilty of threatening and pointing a revolver at the Lucknow district jailer where he was lodged in 2003. Ansari was also fined Rs 37,000.

The latest case in which Mukhtar Ansari was convicted was related to the use of forged documents to obtain an arms licence in 1990. A Varanasi court, earlier this month, sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Among the prominent cases against Mukhtar Ansari were the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and six others that took place in the Bhawarkol area of Ghazipur district in November 2005. Mukhtar Ansari was booked along with his brother Afzal and five others.

On the direction of the High Court, the case was investigated by the CBI. In 2019, a special CBI court in Delhi acquitted Afzal, Mukhtar Ansari, and five others in the murder case. Rai’s son filed an appeal against the acquittal, which is pending in the Delhi High Court.

In June last year, a court in Varanasi sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment for the murder of local politician Awadhesh