Seven years of Yogi raj turned the tables on Mukhtar

Seven years of the Yogi Adityanath government with a two-pronged approach of sustained police action and a brilliant legal strategy since 2017 involving effective prosecution, a battery of government lawyers and regular monitoring of cases in trial courts against Mukhar Ansari were among the factors turned the tables against the gangster-politician who was once considered invincible.

The state’s legal system was energised further under the Yogi Adityanath government to ensure prosecution of over 60 criminal cases pending in district courts, mostly in the Purvanchal region, people aware of the matter said.

While the first case was lodged against Mukhtar in 1978 and the first murder charge in 1986, it was only in 2022 that his first conviction took place.

In fact, between September 2022 and March 2024, he was convicted in eight cases.

Yogi Adityanath retained the law ministry with himself in his second tenure as chief minister in 2022.

“Effective prosecution by the state government in trial courts ensured that criminals were brought to justice. There are no unnecessary adjournments during hearing of the cases,” said additional advocate general Vinod Kumar Shahi.

Owing to the improved law and order situation, witnesses are turning up in courts to record their statements without fear, he said.

The state government is committed to speedy trial of criminals, he added.

In April 2023, Ansari was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in connection with the sensational 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. Rai and six others were killed using AK-47 assault rifle.

Ansari was also sentenced to life imprisonment on June 5, 2023 in the murder of Awadesh Rai, elder brother of current Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai, in 1991.

In December 2023, the MP/MLA court of Varanasi had found Ansari guilty of threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the murder of 26-year-old coal businessman Nand Kishor Rungta, and had sentenced him to five and a half years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of ₹10,000 against him.

On March 13 this year, Ansari was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990. This was the eighth case in which the former five-time MLA was convicted and sentenced by a court in Uttar Pradesh in the past two years.

GFX

HISTORY OF CONVICTIONS

September 21, 2022: Sentenced to seven years in jail by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court in a 2003 case related with issuing threats to the then jailor of Lucknow district jail.

September 23, 2022: Lucknow court awards five years’ prison term in a Gangsters Act case lodged in 1999 at the Hazratganj police station in the state capital.

December 15, 2022: Ghazipur court awards 10 years’ prison term in a 1996 Gangsters Act case lodged in Ghazipur.

April 29, 2023: Varanasi MP/MLA court awards 10 years’ imprisonment in 2005 murder case of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai.

June 5, 2023: Life imprisonment awarded by a Varanasi court for the murder of Awadesh Rai, brother of current state Congress president Ajay Rai, in 1991.

October 10, 2023: Sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Gangsters Act case lodged in 2010 in Ghazipur.

December 2023: Varanasi MP/MLA court awards five-and-a-half year prison term in a 26-year- old case related to issuing threats to a witness in the Nand Kishore Rungta murder case of 1997.

March 13, 2024: Varanasi MP/MLA court sentences him to life imprisonment in a case related with use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990.