A local court in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh has sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to 10-year Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) and fined him Rs five lakh under the Gangster Act in a 26-year-old case related to killing of two persons in gang rivalry and attack on a police officer.
Additional District Judge at the MP/MLA Court in Ghazipur, Durgesh Pandey on Thursday convicted Ansari, making it his third conviction in less than three months. Earlier in September this year, the Allahabad High Court had convicted Ansari in two cases.
The Ghazipur court yesterday further convicted Ansari’s aide Bhim Singh in the case dating back to 1996. He was also sentenced to 10-years RI and fined Rs five lakh. Bhim Singh, who is out on bail, was immediately arrested after his conviction.
Earlier on December 12, the court had reserved its judgement in the case.
Ansari is currently under custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has started its interrogation in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
On December 14, a local court in Prayagraj had sent Ansari, who was lodged in Banda jail, to ED custody for 10 days.
Almost 59 cases have been lodged against Ansari till now, of which 20 are pending in different courts.
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On September 21 this year, the Single-Judge Lucknow Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh had sentenced Ansari to a two-year imprisonment, holding him guilty of threatening to kill the jailer.
Ansari was acquitted by the trial court in this case, against whom the Uttar Pradesh government had filed an appeal.
Way back in 2003, the then jailer of Lucknow, S.K. Awasthi, had filed a case against Ansari at the Alambagh police station, stating that he was been threatened with death consequences, if he ordered to search the people who had come to meet Ansari in jail.
The jailor alleged that Ansari had not only threatened him with dire consequences, but also pointed a pistol at him while abusing him.