Gangster Mukhtar Ansari and his aide, Bhim Singh, were sentenced to 10 years in jail on Thursday by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur in five cases of murder and attempted murder. The cases include the murder of a constable, Raghuvansh Singh, and the additional superintendent of police of Ghazipur, among others.
The verdict is being viewed as a significant which has vowed to end the mafia raj in the state. This is Mukhtar Ansari’s third sentence in the last three months.
The chief minister’s zero tolerance policy against crime has got the police aggressively pursuing cases against gangsters in courts and providing protection to witnesses being threatened.
The conviction relates to several cases, including the one pertaining to Ghazipur that involved an assault on the Additional Superintendent of Police.
Ansari has been lodged in a jail in UP’s Banda for the last few years, and the Enforcement Directorate is interrogating him. There are 59 cases against the gangster, of which 20 are pending in the courts while Ansari was sentenced today. The gangster and the 282 members of his network are facing police action in the state.
Action has been taken in 126 cases under the Gangster Act, of which 66 are related to the Gunda Act. In addition, Ansari’s five associates have been killed in encounters.
Case number 165/96 Section 148,307,332, IPC Police Station Kotwali Ghazipur along with case number 192/96 Section 3 (1) of UP Ghazipur Police Station Kotwali which related to the fatal attack on the Additional SP and some other policemen in Ghazipur was being heard against Mukhtar Ansari in court.
The case was filed long back in 1996.
Other cases against the five-time former MLA include – ‘Rajendra Singh’ murder case number 410/88 Section 302 IPC Police Station Cantt Varanasi, ‘Vashishtha Tiwari’ alias Mala Guru murder case number 106/88 Section 302 IPC Police Station Kotwali Ghazipur, ‘Awadhesh Rai’ murder case number 229/91 Section 149, 302 IPC Police Station Chetganj Varanasi, Constable ‘Raghuvansh Singh’ Murder Case No. 294/91 Section 307, 302 Police Station Mughalsarai. Constable Raghuvansh Singh apparently died in a deadly attack on the police force while checking a vehicle in Chandauli.
In the verdict coming after 26 years, a total of 11 witnesses testified after which arguments were completed in court.
