How prosecution cell countered Mukhtar Ansari’s stalling tactics

Apr 30, 2023 06:50 PM IST

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UP police additional director general (ADG), prosecution cell, Ashutosh Pandey said the courts also expedited the matter when charges were framed in nine cases against Ansari, a five-time former MLA from Mau.

For almost three decades, mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari used his political clout and stonewalled efforts to frame charges against him even though 50 FIRs were registered and charge sheet filed against him by police in many cases during this period.

UP police additional director general (ADG), prosecution cell, Ashutosh Pandey said the efforts resulted in the conviction and sentencing of Ansari in four separate cases in nearly eight months since September 2022. (HT FILE)

“We discovered this tactic of Mukhtar Ansari and his gang members around two years ago that they never allow the framing of charges against them and kept delaying the legal process for decades. The prosecution cell started monitoring cases against him and aggressively got charges framed against him in old cases pending against him for several years,” said UP police additional director general (ADG), prosecution cell, Ashutosh Pandey.

He said the courts also expedited the matter when charges were framed in nine cases against Ansari, a five-time former MLA from Mau.

Pandey said the efforts resulted in the conviction and sentencing of Ansari in four separate cases in nearly eight months since September 2022.

The ADG further said on July 16, 2022 that the charges were framed against Ansari in a case pending against him at MP/MLA court of Varanasi since 1990. Charges were also framed against him in another case of 1997 registered at Bhelupur police station, Varanasi, on August 24, 2021.

Besides, charges were framed in a 1999 case registered against him at Jagdishpura police station of Agra on October 8, 2022.

“Moreover, the charges were framed against Ansari in a case registered against him with Alambagh police station of Lucknow on March 28, 2021,” Pandey said.

“In four other cases registered against Ansari between 2020-2021, the charges were framed against him within one year,” he added.

He said similarly charges were framed against his MP brother Afzal Ansari on September 23, 2022 in a Gangster Act lodged against him in Ghazipur district in which he was convicted and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on Saturday.

Mukhtar Ansari and Afzal Ansari were both convicted in the 2007 Gangster Act case.

The Ghazipur MP-MLA court sentenced Mukhtar to 10 years of imprisonment and slapped a penalty of ₹5 lakh on him. Afzal, a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP, was sentenced to four years of prison term and a fine of ₹1 lakh was imposed on him.

The court was hearing the Gangster Act case registered against the Ansari brothers in connection with the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in November 2005 and the kidnapping and murder of VHP leader Nand Kishore Rungta in January 1997.

The first conviction of Mukhtar Ansari over the last eight months was on September 21 last when a court awarded him seven years imprisonment for threatening the then jailor of the Lucknow district jail, SK Awasthi, in 2003.

Besides, the Allahabad High Court sentenced Mukhtar to undergo two years imprisonment and slapped a fine of ₹10,000 on him in a Gangster Act case registered against him by the Hazratganj police of Lucknow in 1999.

Mukhtar was sentenced in another Gangster Act case, imposed against him by Ghazipur police in 1999. The Ghazipur MP/MLA court sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh on him on December 15 last year.