Mafia Mukhtar Ansari convicted in kidnapping, murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment

Jailed mafia Muktar Ansari has been convicted in a kidnapping and murder case pertaining to the killing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai. Ansari has been sentenced to ten years of imprisonment by an MP MLA court in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. 

The jailed mafia and former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA was also fined ₹5 lakhs by the MP MLA Court. He was produced virtually in the court on Saturday. 

Ghazipur's MP-MLA court also convicted Afzal Ansari, BSP MP and brother of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, in a gangster case & sentenced him to 4 years imprionment and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh.

Wife of deceased BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai on Saturday said that the rule of mafia has ended in Uttar Pradesh and that she has faith in the judiciary. "I believe in the judiciary. Rule of Goondas, Mafias have ended (in the state)," Alka Rai said, wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai who was murdered in Ghazipur in 2005.

BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai had been murdered allegedly by gangster- politician Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari in 2005. Ansari is the second politician to come into limelight for the murder of other noted and important people. 

Recently, gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmad were also convicted in the murder of Umesh Pal, the key witness in the 2005 murder case of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Raju Pal. However, Atiq was shot dead on live television by assailants, in the presence of Uttar Pradesh police officers. 

Earlier in January this year, the police registered a murder case against Mukhtar Ansari in connection to the 2001 'Usri Chatti' gang war incident.

BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai murder

Rai was murdered on 29 November 2005, while attending a family wedding in his native village. He had been made aware of a death threat by Special Task Force officers, who warned him of hired killers at the residence of a local politician and gangster Mukhtar Ansari. 

He was coaxed to start a cricket match in Siyari and was persuaded not to use his bullet-proof vehicle or guards. He was ambushed on his way back home by assailants who used automatic rifles. Seven people died in total.

Previous cases of Mukhtar Ansari

Earlier on 18 January, Allahabad High Court dismissed the 15 March order of the Ghazipur MP/MLA Court, which allowed Ansari to be kept in a superior-class jail in Banda.

While giving the order, the court had said the order of the special court is without jurisdiction, and gangster, dreaded criminal Bahubali Ansari is not legally entitled to get a superior class in jail.

Earlier on December 15 last year, Ansari and his aide Bhim Singh were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Gangster Court in Ghazipur in five cases related to murder and attempt to murder.

The cases include the murder of constable Raghuvansh Singh and a murderous assault on an additional SP of Ghazipur among others.

On September 21, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court convicted Mukhtar Ansari and sentenced him for threatening jailer SK Awasthi and pointing a pistol at him. The case dates to 2003 when Lucknow district prison jailer SK Awasthi lodged an FIR saying that he was threatened to order a search of the people who came to meet Ansari in prison.

On September 23, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court sentenced him to five years in a case registered in 1999 under the Gangster Act. The court had also imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on Mukhtar in this 23-year-old case.

(With ANI inputs)