Mukhtar sentenced to life imprisonment in gun licence case

LUCKNOW/VARANASI: Incarcerated mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who has been behind bars in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005, was sentenced to a life term by a Varanasi MP/MLA court on Wednesday in a case of fraudulently obtaining an arms licence around 34 years ago. The court also imposed a penalty of ₹2.02 lakh in the matter.

This is the eighth case in which he has been sentenced in the past 18 months since September 2022 by different courts of Uttar Pradesh, and the second case in which he has been awarded life imprisonment.

In the recent case, the court convicted Ansari on Tuesday and then fixed Wednesday for pronouncing the quantum of punishment. After hearing the matter, MP/MLA court of special judge Avnish Gautam convicted him in the case under section 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 30 of the Arms Act.

Varanasi additional district government counsel (criminal), Vinay Kumar Singh, informed that the court sentenced a life term under sections 467 (forgery of valuable security) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, along with imposing a penalty of ₹1 lakh. An extra term of six months was added if the penalty is not paid, he said.

He further added that the court sentenced seven years of imprisonment each under sections 468/120B and 420/120B, and slapped a penalty of ₹50,000 each. Besides, the court sentenced imprisonment of six months and a penalty of ₹2,000 under section 30 of the Arms Act.

He said the court ruled that all these terms would run concurrently, meaning Ansari must serve the life term and pay a penalty of ₹2,02,000 in the case. Ansari is currently incarcerated in Banda jail and was produced before the court through video conferencing.

Sharing further details, Singh said Mukhtar Ansari had applied to the Ghazipur district magistrate for the licence of a double-barrel gun on June 10, 1987. Later, the arms licence was obtained with forged signatures of the then district magistrate and the then superintendent of police, he added.

On December 4, 1990, when this fraud was exposed, the CB-CID lodged a complaint with the police. Based on this complaint, a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered against five individuals, including Mukhtar Ansari, at Mohammadabad police station in Ghazipur. The charge sheet was submitted to the court in 1997, naming the then ordnance clerk Gaurishankar Srivastava and Mukhtar Ansari. Gaurishankar Srivastava died during the hearing of the case.

Meanwhile, UP DGP Prashant Kumar said that this marks the eighth case in which Ansari had been sentenced since September 21, 2022. This includes four cases related to the Gangster Act, for which he was sentenced by different courts.

He further stated that a total of 65 criminal cases had been registered against Mukhtar Ansari since 1978. Presently, 21 cases are under trial in various courts across the state.

Earlier on December 15, 2023, the Varanasi MP/MLA court sentenced him five years and six months in prison in issuing life threat to Mahavir Prasad Rungta for turning hostile and not pursue the kidnapping and murder case of BJP leader and coal trader Nand Kishore Rungta on January 22, 1997. Nand Kishore Rungta was the brother of Mahavir Prasad Rungta.

Another police official informed that the Ghazipur MP/MLA court on October 27, 2023, sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh in a gangster case lodged against him in 2010.

He said that on June 5, 2023, the Varanasi MP/MLA court sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment for the murder of Awadesh Rai, the elder brother of former Congress MLA and present UP Congress president Ajay Rai. He further elaborated that Awadesh Rai was fatally shot when he and his brother Ajay were standing outside their house in the Lahurabeer locality of Varanasi on August 3, 1991. He said that the Ghazipur MP/MLA court had sentenced Ansari to 10 years of imprisonment in another case on April 29, 2023.

He said that the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, on September 23, 2022, sentenced him to five years of rigorous imprisonment in a Gangster Act case registered against the ex-MLA in 1999 at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow and slapped a penalty of ₹50,000 as well. He mentioned that the Ghazipur MP/MLA court, on December 15, 2022, sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh each in two separate cases of gangster act lodged against him in 1996 and 2007.

Kumar added that Ansari’s first conviction in the last 13 months was awarded by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court. He was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment on September 21, 2022, for threatening the jailor of the Lucknow district jail in 2003.