An MP/MLA court in Ghazipur on Thursday held gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari guilty in a case of the Gangster Act registered by the Uttar Pradesh police in 2009. The quantum of punishment will be announced on Friday. The police booked Ansari, a former five-term MLA under the Gangster Act after he was accused of plotting a conspiracy to kill one Kapil Dev Singh, who was murdered in 2009.
It is the sixth case in the last 15 months in which the former MLA has been convicted by the courts. In June, a Varanasi court sentenced Ansari to life imprisonment in the murder of Awadhesh Rai, the brother of Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai. Earlier in April, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in connection with the cases of the kidnapping of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Nand Kishore Rungta and the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, respectively.
Ansari, 60, facing more than 40 cases, is languishing in jail since 2005. He wields influence in the Ghazipur-Mau-Varanasi region allegedly through a criminal syndicate and has been involved in rivalry with other strongmen of the regions.
