He has been convicted in several other criminal cases.
New Delhi:
Jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari was today convicted by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi in a 32-year-old murder case. A five-time MLA, Ansari has been charged with the murder of a Congress leader in 1991, when he was starting to gain political prominence. On August 3, 1991, Congress leader and brother of Former MLA Ajay Rai, Awadhesh Rai, was shot dead outside Ajay Rai’s house in Varanasi. Mukhtar Ansari was not an MLA when he committed the crime. Security was tightened at the court complex ahead of the verdict.
Mr Rai had named Mukhtar Ansari, Bhim Singh, and former MLA Abdul Kalim, in the FIR. Ansari has also been convicted in several criminal cases in the past.
The Varanasi MP MLA court concluded the hearing after arguments on May 19, reserved its order, and fixed June 5 as the date to deliver it.
A five-term MLA, Mukhtar Ansari is already serving a 10-year jail term in another kidnapping and murder case. He was convicted in April.
The investigation of the case was handed over to the CB-CID. Curiously, during the hearing of the case in June 2022, it was found that the case diary had disappeared. The entire case was heard on the basis of photocopies. This is the first case where the verdict has been pronounced on the basis of duplicate papers.
