Court sentences Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment in three-decade-old case

Lucknow: Gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari was on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a Varanasi MP/MLA court in a fake gun license case registered against him in 1990.

Special judge (MP/MLA Court) Avneesh Gautam also imposed a fine of Rs 2.02 lakh on Ansari, who appeared before the court through video conferencing.

According to the prosecution, Ansari had applied to the then district magistrate of Ghazipur for a license for a double barrel gun in June 1987. It was alleged that he procured the license by faking signatures of the district magistrate and the then district superintendent of police.

A case in this connection was later lodged against him at the Mohamadabad police station in Ghazipur district in 1990. This was the eighth case against Ansari, who is currently lodged in the Banda district jail. The other criminal cases against him include those of murder and extortion.

Last year an MP/MLA Court in Varanasi had sentenced Ansari to life imprisonment in the case of murder of the Congress leader Awadhesh Rai. Awadhesh Rai, who was the elder brother of UPCC president Ajay Rai, was sprayed with bullets on the morning of August 3. 1991 while he stood outside his residence in Lahurabir locality in Varanasi.

Ansari, who was a five term former MLA, had earlier been convicted in several other cases by the court. He had also been sentenced to ten years imprisonment under the Gangsters Act by a court in Ghazipur district. His brother Afzal was also sentenced to four year's imprisonment by the court. The cases against the duo include, among others, the killing of the then BJP MLA Krishnand Rai in 2007.