Don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari received yet another blow on Wednesday when the MP/MLA Court in Varanasi awarded him life imprisonment in a three-decade old case.
Additionally, the court imposed a fine of Rs 2,02,000 on the gangster.
This is the second life imprisonment sentence awarded to Mukhtar Ansari in the Yogi Adityanath government. Courts have announced their verdicts in as many as eight cases against Mukhtar Ansari so far after finding him guilty.
It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s efforts to ensure effective prosecution of dreaded criminals is leading to announcement of verdicts one after another in several pending cases.
Additional Sessions Judge and Special Judge of MP/MLA Court in Varanasi, Awanish Gautam, sentenced Mukhtar Ansari in the case of obtaining arms licence on fake signatures of district magistrate/superintendent of police.
After the hearing and effective prosecution in three cases registered in police station Mohammadabad Ghazipur and one case registered in Kotwali Ghazipur in 1990, separate sentences were given for each of the four charges.
It includes seven years’ imprisonment awarded under sections 420/120 B of the Indian Penal Code, life imprisonment under sections 467/120 B of the IPC, seven years under sections 468/120 B of the IPC and a 6-month sentence under Section 30 of the Arms Act. All sentences will run concurrently.
In addition to this, a separate fine of Rs. 2,02,000 has been imposed on Mukhtar Ansari. Failure to pay the fine may result in an additional imprisonment of one year to one week.
Notably, owing to the effective prosecution by the Yogi government, Mukhtar Ansari has already been sentenced to life imprisonment in the case of the murder of Awadhesh Rai, elder brother of Congress state president Ajay Rai.
Prior to this, in December 2023, the MP/MLA Court of Varanasi had found Mukhtar Ansari guilty of threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the murder of 26-year-old coal businessman Nand Kishor Rungta, and had sentenced him to five and a half years of rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 against him.
