Mukhtar Ansari, five-time former Uttar Pradesh MLA with 63 cases, eight convictions

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a five-time former Uttar Pradesh MLA who died of cardiac arrest on Thursday, was an accused in 63 criminal cases and convicted in eight cases since September 2022.

His tryst with the world of crime began 45 years ago when he first case of criminal intimidation under Indian Penal Code section 506 was lodged against him, as per state police crime records, in February 1978 at the age of 15. The first murder case was lodged against him in 1986.

A senior police official said Mukhtar Ansari feared a threat to his life as four close associates were killed while in judicial custody since 2018. Two shootouts took place inside U.P. jails while one happened inside the courtroom.

In one of these incidents, a jailed gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari alias Jeeva, a key accused alongside Mukhtar Ansari in a murder case, was shot dead by an assailant when he was presented before a court in Lucknow on June 7, 2023.

Jeeva was among seven contract killers, who allegedly gunned down Krishnanand Rai, a sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA of Mohammadabad in Ghazipur, in 2005.

According to another police officer, the men were allegedly led by Prem Prakash Singh (alias Munna Bajrangi).

In what was a sensational murder, the assailants ambushed two SUVs of Rai’s motorcade at a bridge in Bhawarkol area of Ghazipur district on November 29, 2005, before gunning him down. Rai was the political face of Mukhtar Ansari’s archrival Brijesh Singh. The officer said the assailants used assault rifles to fire over 400 rounds.

Alka Rai, the slain MLA’s wife, had accused Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal, as well as other assailants, including Munna Bajrangi and Jeeva for the murder. She said that the Ansari brothers wanted to keep their hold over the constituency after Rai won the polls against Afzal. A Delhi court, however, acquitted Mukhtar and others for the lack of evidence in July 2019.

“Munna Bajrangi was shot dead by another gangster Sunil Rathi inside Baghpat jail on July 9, 2018. Rathi, who was serving a life term in Baghpat jail, later confessed to killing Bajrangi,” a former director general rank police official said, requesting anonymity.

Another official said Mukhtar Ansari’s other associates Merajuddin and Mukeem Kala were shot dead by another jailed gangster Anshu Dixit in a shootout inside Chitrakoot jail in May 2021. Dixit, who used a semi-automatic pistol, was later gunned down by the police in their attempt to overpower him.

Lodged in different jails in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005, Mukhtar Ansari was shifted back to the Banda prison in April 2021.

Ansari had reportedly sought a move to Ropad jail in January 2019, claiming that his life was in danger after his one-time aide and shooter Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi was killed by Sunil Rathi inside Baghpat jail in July 2018.

“The Punjab police took him to Ropad jail in connection with production of B-warrant in an extortion case lodged by a local businessman against him there. Ansari remained there for around 26 months before being brought to UP jail and the state government had to move the Supreme Court to bring him back. The Punjab police handed Ansari’s judicial custody to the UP police after the apex court direction,” a senior UP police official said, requesting anonymity.

Ansari was elected MLA from the Mau assembly constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh five times from 1996 to 2022, twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, twice as an Independent and once as a Quami Ekta Dal nominee. In 2022, he passed on the baton to his elder son Abbas Ansari, who won from the same assembly seat as a candidate of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party in 2022, which was then in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.

Mukhtar’s brother Afzal is a two-time MP from Ghazipur constituency..