Mukhtar Ansari 10 and his brother Afzal sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment

Mukhtar Ansari has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Ghaziapur court in Uttar Pradesh. Ansari was charged under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act and was fined Rs 5 lakh. His brother, BSP MP Afzal Ansari, has been sentenced to four years, and the verdict could lead to him losing his Lok Sabha seat, as per the Representation of the People Act.

The verdict was delivered amid tight security outside the court premises, which included heightened police presence in light of the kidnapping and murder cases against both brothers.

Ansari, a former five-time MLA, was booked for his alleged role in the 1996 kidnapping case of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Nandkishore Rungta and the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai.

In January of this year, Ansari was booked for murder in connection with the 2001 'Usri Chatti' gang war incident. He was charged under sections 302, 147, 148, 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Mohammadabad police station in Ghazipur.

The Allahabad high court dismissed the March 15 order of the Ghazipur MP-MLA Court on January 18, which had allowed Ansari to be kept in a superior-class jail in Banda.

In December 2020, Ansari and his aide Bhim Singh were sentenced to 10 years in jail in five cases related to murder and attempt to murder, which included the murder of constable Raghuvansh Singh and an assault on an additional SP of Ghazipur.

On September 21, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court convicted Ansari in the 2003 case for allegedly threatening Lucknow district prison jailer S.K. Awasthi and pointing a pistol at him.