Mukhtar Ansari, a jailed gangster-turned-politician, died on Thursday of a cardiac arrest at the Banda medical college in Uttar Pradesh, a day after being taken to the hospital from the Banda district jail due to deteriorating health.
According to a medical college bulletin, Mukhtar Ansari was admitted to the hospital earlier in the day around 8:25 p.m. because his health was “critical”. “A team of nine doctors attended him but despite all their efforts, he passed away following the cardiac arrest,” the statement read.
Who was Mukhtar Ansari?
- Mukhar Ansari was a gangster-turned-politician who served five terms as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency. He was a relative of former Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari. Ansari’s paternal grandfather was a freedom fighter and president of the Congress Party, while his maternal grandfather was a Brigadier in the Indian Army.
- During the early 1970s, Ansari was accused of belonging to the Makhanu Singh gang, which had clashed with another gang led by Sahib Singh over a plot of land in Saidpur, resulting in a series of violent incidents. Ansari had also been involved in mafia activities near Ghazipur.
- Mukhtar Ansari political career began in the early 1990s as a student union leader at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He was later elected MLA in 1996. Eventually, the gangster-turned-politician emerged as the undisputed leader of the Poorvanchal region, capitalizing on the Muslim vote bank. Later, in 2007, Ansari and his brother joined the Bahujan Samaj Party. While in jail, Ansari ran for Lok Sabha from Varanasi in 2009, but was defeated by a BJP candidate. One year later, the BSP expelled Ansari and his brother from the party.
- Mukhtar Ansari, who had been imprisoned for more than 15 years, had 63 cases of land grabbing, extortion, and murder against him. Ansari was charged with criminal intimidation under Indian Penal Code section 506 in 1978, when he was 15 years old. He faced his first murder charge in 1986. His name was also on a list of 66 gangsters released by the Uttar Pradesh Police last year.
Conclusion
The gangster-turned-politician has been sentenced in eight cases by various Uttar Pradesh courts since September 2022 and is being held in Banda jail. Last year, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a ₹5 lakh fine by Ghazipur’s MP-MLA court for kidnapping and murdering BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. Meanwhile, on March 13, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case involving the use of forged documents to obtain an arms license in 1990.
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