The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Thursday, raided the offices and residences of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari, and his acquaintances, in Delhi and different parts of Uttar Pradesh. The raid was conducted in connection with a money laundering case registered against Afzal’s brother and mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari.
According to sources, the ED investigators, who were accompanied by teams of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, conducted raids on Afzal’s official residence in Delhi and Mohammadabad and Ghazipur town in Uttar Pradesh.
The investigators also raided the offices and residences of several acquaintances—including a travel company owner Mushtaq Khan and a jeweller Vikram Agrahari—of the Ansari brothers in Mohammadabad and Ghazipur, sources said.
Sources said that the CRPF jawans surrounded the residences of Afzal and his acquaintances, and no one was allowed to enter or leave. It was not immediately clear if the ED found anything incriminating in the raids.
A five-time member of Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly, Mukhtar, who was currently lodged in the district jail in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, has as many as 49 criminal cases registered against in the state, including murder, extortion and land-grabbing.
The UP police, recently, had seized Mukhtar’s properties worth over Rs 14 crore from different parts of the state.
Afzal, who is Mukhtar’s elder brother, defeated former union minister, and Lieutenant General of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, from Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general elections to become a member of Parliament.
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