Mukhtar Ansari’s close aide killed by Uttar Pradesh STF in encounter

A dreaded shooter, who along with gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari and another gangster was accused in the killing of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai in 2005, was gunned down by a team of Uttar Pradesh police’s Special Task Force (STF) on the outskirts of Lucknow on Sunday morning, said officials.

The officials said Rakesh Pandey alias Hanuman Pandey carried a reward of ₹1 lakh on his head.

They said Pandey was involved in several murders and shootouts carried out allegedly by Mukhtar Ansari’s gang in the past 23 years. Ansari was accused of hatching a conspiracy to kill Rai, who was an MLA from Mohammadabad assembly constituency in Ghazipur, while in jail but was acquitted during the trial at a lower court.

Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi was shot dead by another gangster Sunil Rathi inside Baghpat jail on July 9, 2018.

Amitabh Yash, STF’s inspector general (IG) of police, said a team was continuously trying to track him for the past many months. Yash said he was gunned down in retaliatory firing while the team was trying to arrest him when he had come to meet one of his accomplices on Kanpur Rad under Sarojini Nagar police station limits.

Yash said Pandey had at least 10 criminal cases registered against him between 1993 and 2010. He said Pandey disappeared around 10 years ago and was untraceable since then.