ED searches Ansari brothers: BSP MP Afzal Ansari’s property worth ₹12 cr attached in Ghazipur
The searches are being carried out at multiple locations in UP’s Ghazipur, Lucknow and Mau as well as Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), an ED official said.
A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched multiple premises linked to jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, the police attached the property of his brother and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP, Afzal Ansari, worth ₹12 crore at a village in Ghazipur district, on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, the searches were conducted on the premises linked to the Ansari brothers in connection with a money laundering case registered against them in July last year. The searches are being carried out at multiple locations in UP’s Ghazipur, Lucknow and Mau as well as Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), an ED official said.
The official said Ansari’s family house in Ghazipur’s Mohammadabad was also searched. BSP MP Afzal Ansari’s house in Lucknow’s Dalibagh locality, and a building owned by Mukhtar’s associates in Hussainganj, were also searched. In Mau, ED officials also raided the premises of his three business associates including a bus operator of Mau.
In the recent action, the Ghazipur police attached the property in Macha village under Mohamadabad police station limits in Ghazipur district which was in the name of Afzal Ansari’s two daughters Nusrat Ansari and Maria Ansari. Police officials informed that this ‘Bemani’ land was first registered in the name of his wife Farhat Ansari and later it was transferred in the names of their two daughters as a gift in March 2017 to evade legal action on the property under provisions of Gangsters Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act slapped against Ansari.
Officials said the attached property is a huge chunk of land 1,47,465.6 square feet on which a two-storey building and a tin shed with boundary from all sides is constructed. They said the property was attached after making a proper announcement in the village about the action initiated by the local district administration. Besides, a board having information related to the cases lodged against Afzal Ansari and property has been erected, they added.
The Yogi Adityanath-led state government earlier said it has demolished or attached assets linked to Mukhtar Ansari, 59, worth about ₹250 crore. In June last year, the UP administration attached property worth ₹24 crore besides large portions of land in Mau on charges that they were in his illegal possession.