A Varanasi’s Special MP/MLA Court has sentenced the dreaded gangster and former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment in the 1991 Awadhesh Rai Murder Case. Former Congress MLA Ajay Rai’s brother Awadhesh Rai was shot dead outside Ajay Rai’s house, when the van full of killers opened fire at him on August 3, 1991.
Ajay Rai was standing beside his brother, Awadhesh Rai, and witnessed the incident. He named Mukhtar Ansari, Bhim Singh and former MLA Abdul Kalim in the case. Kamlesh Singh and Rakesh Nyayik were also accused in the case. It is pertinent to note that Kamlesh Singh and Abdul Kalim died during the pendency of the case.
Notably, this verdict took 32 years as the case was affected multiple times. While the case was being fought, it came to light that the primary “case diary” went missing. Furthermore, in November 2008, there was a bomb blast near the court where the case was being heard. One of the accused in the case approached the High Court claiming that there was a threat to his life. It was reported that this affected the case hearings for a long time.
Ajay Rai said, “This is the end of our many years of waiting. I, my parents, Awadhesh’s daughter and the whole family kept patience,” hearing about Mukhtar Ansari’s conviction in the case. He continued, “Governments came and went and Mukhtar strengthened himself. But we did not give up. Because of our lawyers’ efforts, today the court has found Mukhtar guilty in the murder case of my brother.”
Mukhtar Ansari’s Prior Convictions
The troubles for Mukhtar Ansari do not seem to end. In April, the gangster-turned-politician was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai’s murder case, along with his brother and former BSP MP Afzal Ansari. Furthermore, a Ghazipur Court convicted Mukhtar Ansari and his aide Bhim Singh in a 26-year-old Gangster Case in December 2022.
In September 2022, the Allahabad High Court convicted him in two cases, in one case the court found Mukhtar Ansari guilty of intimidating a jailer wherein he abused the jailer and pointed a revolver pistol at him, and threatened to kill him in 2003. In another case, the court convicted him to 5 years imprisonment in a 23-year-old case under the Gangster Act.
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