Mukhtar Ansari Convicted By UP Court In 1991 Murder Case

A court in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi convicted gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in 32-year-old Awadhesh Rai's murder case.

New Delhi: A court in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi on Monday convicted gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the murder of Congress leader Awadhesh Rai in 1991. The special MP/MLA court sentenced Ansari to life imprisonment. Rai was shot dead on August 3, 1991, at the gate of his Lahurabir residence in Varanasi. 

Reacting to the development, Congress leader Ajay Rai, the brother of Awadhesh, said, "This is the end of our many years of waiting. I, my parents, Awadhesh's daughter and the whole family kept patience... Governments came and went and Mukhtar strengthened himself. But we did not give up. Because of our lawyers' efforts, today the court has found Mukhtar guilty in the murder case of my brother."

Earlier in April this year, Ghazipur court in UP had sentenced Mukhtar Ansari, who is presently lodged in Banda jail, and his brother Afzal Ansari to imprisonment for 10 years and four years, respectively in a 2007 Gangsters Act case.

In 2007, a case was filed under the Gangsters Act against the Ansari brothers at the Muhammadabad Kotwali police station. The duo was booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai on November 29, 2005, along with the kidnapping and murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.

In September 2022, prima facie charges were framed against the two.

Mukhtar had been an MLA for five consecutive terms from the Mau Sadar assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh.