Judicial Probe Ordered To Investigate Gangster-Turned-Politician Mukhtar Ansari's Death (image-X/MukhtarAnsari09)
Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of a cardiac arrest in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on Thursday evening. The family of the five-time MLA from Mau has alleged that Ansari was subjected to “slow poisoning” in prison. Ansari died at the Rani Durgavati Medical College during treatment. A judicial inquiry has been ordered by the Chief Judicial Magistrate into his death. The state police are on high alert, ordering prohibitory orders to maintain law and order.
But who was Mukhtar Ansari?
A Family Lineage Rooted in Indian History
Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, the paternal grandfather, was a freedom fighter during the independence of India. He later served as a prominent leader in the Indian National Congress. He served as Congress president in 1927 and then as the Chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia until his death in 1936.
Mohammad Usman, the maternal grandfather, was a brigadier in the Indian Army who remained a bachelor till his death during a conflict with Pakistan in 1948. Usman was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously.
With such a decorated and rich family lineage, Mukhtar Ansari seemed to have chosen a different route, which ultimately ended in politics. Born on June 30, 1963, to the late Haji Subhanullah Ansari, Mukhtar Ansari would grow up to become one of the most renowned faces of crime in Uttar Pradesh.
A Life of Crime, Violence, And Murder
At the tender age of 15, Mukhtar Ansari was booked for criminal intimidation at the Saidpur Police Station in Ghazipur. And so began Ansari’s tryst with the underworld of crime.
Fast forward to the early 1970s, the UP government commissioned multiple developmental projects in the Poorvanchal region of the state, giving birth to organised gangs competing against each other to grab the contracts. In the 1980s, Ansari allegedly became a part of the Makhanu Singh gang. Violence broke out when the Makhanu gang clashed with rival Sahib Singh’s gang for a plot in Saidpur. Ansari established himself as a well-known face in the contract work mafia circle with a murder case lodged against him at Ghazipur’s Muhammad Police Station. Ansari’s influence spread through the districts of Mau, Varanasi, Ghazipur,and Jaunpur.
Mukhtar Ansari with Bollywood Actor Salman Khan
A member of Sahib Singh’s gang by the name of Brijesh Singh set up his own gang, taking over the contract work mafia in Ghazipur in the 1990s. An intense rivalry ran between Ansari and Brijesh Singh’s gang, with the two competing over lucrative businesses such as coal mining, liquor business, public works, and railway construction. The rivalry between the two gangs was marked by violence and bloodshed, including an ambush on Ansari’s convoy, which claimed the lives of three of his associates in a 2002 shootout. With Brijesh Singh critically injured, Ansari rose as the undisputed leader of Poorvanchal.
However, Singh avenged Ansari by supporting BJP leader Krishnanand Rai for the 2002 state assembly elections, defeating Ansari’s brother and five-time MLA Afzal Ansari from Mohammadabad. Using a potent mix of crime, religion, and politics, the Ghazipur-Mau region witnessed multiple outbreaks of communal violence. When Ansari was jailed for inciting one such riot, Krishnanand Rai and his six allies were shot dead. Over 67 bullets were recovered from the dead bodies, and over 400 bullets were fired from six AK-47 rifles.
#WATCH | Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh | Wife of Krishnanand Rai – former BJP MLA who was killed by Mukhtar Ansari – Alka Rai says, “What can I say? This is the blessing of the Almighty. I used to pray to him for justice and the justice has been served today. We never celebrated Holi… pic.twitter.com/SyMFo4TXey
— ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2024
A witness was later found dead in mysterious circumstances in 2006, ruled suicide by the police. Another witness requested to drop charges against Ansari after the latter was booked for ordering an attack on the witness.
Over the years, Ansari had at least 14 cases attached to his name. In 2004, DSP Shailendra Singh filed an FIR against Ansari under Prevention of Terrorism Act (2002) after finding a light machine gun (LMG) from his premises. Singh was implicated in an alleged case of vandalism for suggesting Ansari’s arrest by then ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav. In 2021, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government exonerated the former DSP. By 2005, he had 28 criminal cases, including charges of murder, registered against him, in addition to seven cases under the state’s Gangster Act.
Former DSP Shailendra Singh who had arrested Mukhtar Ansari and imposed POTA on Ansari, talks about how Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP supremo, harrassed and intimidated him and other officers of IG, SSP level transferring them which ultimately resulted in him resigning from his post.… pic.twitter.com/b6zEv8utdy
— Dr Poornima(Modi Ka Parivar)🚩🇮🇳 (@PoornimaNimo) March 29, 2024
From Crime To Politics: Robin Hood Or Mafia Don?
Despite his criminal background, Ansari enjoyed immense popularity in the state, which helped him make his way into politics. His political career began as a student union leader in the early 1990s at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
He won the legislative assembly elections from the Mau constituency in 1996. Joining the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) along with his brother in 2007, BSP Chief Mayawati portrayed Ansari as the Robin Hood after Ansari claimed to have been framed for fighting against the “feudal system.”
He contested elections from jail on BSP tickets from Varanasi in the 2009 general elections, but ended up losing against the BJP. After numerous murder charges were filed in the year, BSP expelled Ansari in 2010. He later formed his own political party called Quami Ekta Dal, which later merged with the BSP in 2017.
Ansari with Politician Azam Khan.
In 2016, he rejoined the BSP with an offer from the party to reform. Ansari won the Mau assembly seat again. He was elected as the MLA twice on the BSP ticket: twice as an independent candidate and once as a Quami Ekta Dal candidate.
Even now, some view Ansari as a modern-day Robin Hood, the messiah of the poor, while others denounce him as a dirty criminal who deserves the strictest punishments for his expansive crimes.
With a grand total of 63 criminal cases involving land grabbing and extortion, including 14 murder cases, the 63-year-old was convicted and sentenced in only eight cases, with ongoing trials in 21 cases in multiple courts since September 2022. In 2023, he received a ten-year jail term by the Ghazipur court along with a Rs 5 lakh fine for the kidnapping and murder of Rai. On March 13 of this year, Ansari received a life sentence to a case of forging documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990.
