Mukhtar Ansari (1963-2024) was an Indian politician and strongman. He was considered one of the influential figures in the eastern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal). He was accused in several criminal cases, including the murder of BJP MP Krishnanand Rai. Mukhtar Ansari died in March 2024 due to cardiac arrest.
Wiki/Biography
Mukhtar Ansari was born on Sunday, June 30, 1963 (aged 63 at the time of his death) in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. He started his political career in the student union elections of Ghazipur Postgraduate College Rambad and completed his bachelor’s degree in 1984. After graduation, he became a strongman in Purvanchal.
An old photo of Mukhtar Ansari
appearance
Height (approximate): 6′ 2″
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Black
Family and caste
Mukhtar Ansari was born in a prominent Sunni Muslim family in Ghazipur.
Parents and siblings
He is born to his father Subhanullah Ansari and mother Begum Rabia.
Mukhtar Ansari’s father Suhanullah Ansari
His mother died in December 2018. His grandfather, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, was an Indian freedom fighter and former president of the Indian National Congress and Muslim League.
Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari
Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari Postal Stamp
His maternal grandfather, Brigadier Muhammad Usman, was a decorated Indian Army officer who died in the 1948 conflict with Pakistan in Nowshera district of Jammu and Kashmir and was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra.
Brigadier General Muhammad Usman, Mukhtar Ansari’s maternal grandfather
He has two elder brothers, Sibakatullah Ansari, who is a Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Mohammedabad constituency, and Afzal Ansari, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Ghazipur.
Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Sibakatullah Ansari
Relationships, Wife and Children
On October 15, 1989, he married Afsa Ansari.
Mukhtar Ansari and his wife Afsa Ansari
He has two sons – Abbas Ansari and Umar Ansari. His elder son Abbas Ansari is an ace shooter and has won a national gold medal in shooting. Abbas graduated in management. In 2017, Abbas contested the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections on behalf of the Bahasa Samajwadi Party (BSP) from Ghosh. Ansari’s younger son Umar is also actively involved in politics.
Mukhtar Ansari and his sons
address
Tailor Torah, Kasbah – Yusufpur, Postal – Mohammadabad, Ghazipur District
Early Crime
Mukhtar Ansari entered the world of crime in 1988 when he killed Sachidanand Rai, a local Mandi Parishad contractor in Ghazipur. Around the same time, his name also cropped up in the Varanasi murder of Rajendra Singh, a police constable and brother of Tribhuwan Singh, a close aide of Brijesh Singh.
Mukhtar Ansari detained by police
Mafia boss in Purvanchar
By 1990, Mukhtar Ansari had become the crime mafia boss of eastern India and expanded his criminal activities to Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jainpur. He continued to control the lucrative Thekedari or contracting work mafia in Ghazipur, which included coal mining, railway construction, public works department construction and liquor business. Ansari controlled various government contracts worth billions of rupees in eastern India over the years. In addition to contracting work, Ansari also excelled in extortion, kidnapping and extracting protection money, the so-called “Goonda tax”.
Purvanchal’s biggest competitor
While fighting for the lucrative Thekedari or contract labour mafia in Ghazipur, Ansari clashed with another strongman from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Brijesh Singh. The cause of the Ansari and Brijesh Singh clash was a land near Saidpur in the early 1980s, which was fought over by two gangs, one led by Makanu Singh and Sandhu Singh and the other led by Sahib Singh and Ranjit Singh. After Makanu Singh was killed, a brutal gang war ensued. Later, Mukhtar Ansari became a member of Makanu Singh’s gang, while Brijesh Singh joined Sahib Singh’s gang. Thereafter, the feud between Mukhtar Ansari and Brijesh Singh caused severe bloodshed in the area through multiple gang wars. In 2001, Brijesh Singh ambushed Ansari’s convoy on the Mau-Lucknow highway, and a gunfight ensued, killing three of Ansari’s key men. In the gunfight, Brijesh Singh was seriously injured and later declared dead by the mass media; however, he was seen in the Mau-Ghazipur area a year later.
Mukhtar Ansari and Brijesh Singh rivalry
Krishnanand Rai murder case
In 2002, Krishnanand Rai won the assembly elections from the Mohammedabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh by defeating Afzal Ansari, the brother of Mukhtar Ansari. Rai reportedly passed on all government contracts to Brijesh Singh, who allegedly financed Rai’s campaign. On November 29, 2005, Krishnanand Rai was murdered in a mafia-style manner. Following Rai’s murder, the Ghazipur police station registered a case in which Mukhtar Ansari, his brother Afzal Ansari, and Muna Bazrangi were suspected of involvement in Krishnanand Rai’s murder. Later, Mukhtar Ansari was arrested and jailed; however, on July 3, 2019, after spending 13 years in jail, he was released after the witness turned hostile witness.
On April 29, 2023, Ansari was found guilty of kidnapping and murder of Krishnanand Rai and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh by the MP-MLA court in Gazipur, Uttar Pradesh. On September 25, 2023, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Mukhtar Ansari, who is being held in Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh. The court stayed the execution of the fine of Rs 5 lakh.
Political career
In 1996, Mukhtar Ansari contested the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for the first time on behalf of the BSP and won. He was subsequently elected as an MP from the Mao constituency a record five times. In 2002 and 2007, he contested the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from the Mao constituency as an independent candidate and won. In 2009, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi as a BSP candidate but lost. In 2012, he formed a new political organization, Quami Ekta Dal, and contested the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections as a candidate of Quami Ekta Dal and won. In 2017, he returned to the BJP and won the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from the Mao constituency.
Mukhtar Ansari in UP Vidhan Sabha
Controversy and criminal charges
- He faces seven charges related to criminal intimidation (Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces five charges related to attempt to murder (Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces five charges related to murder (Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces two charges of dishonestly misappropriating property owned by the deceased at the time of death (Section 404 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces two charges of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property (Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He was charged with a charge related to forgery of valuable securities, will, etc. (Section 467 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces a charge of forgery with intent to cheat (Section 468 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces a charge of causing grievous hurt with intent (Section 325 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces six charges related to rioting punishment (Section 147 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces six charges related to punishment of criminal conspiracy (Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces four charges of rioting, carrying deadly weapons (Section 148 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces four charges, involving each member of an unlawful assembly being guilty of an offence with common purpose (Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces three charges, all of which involve preventing a public servant from discharging his duty by means of assault or violence (Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces two charges related to acts endangering life or personal safety of others (Section 336 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces two charges of acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention (Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces a charge related to cheating by impersonation (Section 419 of the Indian Penal Code).
- If the act of abetment leads to the commission of a crime and the law does not clearly stipulate its punishment, he faces a charge of abetment to punishment (Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code).
- He faces a charge of intentionally insulting with intent to cause breach of the peace (Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code).
- On September 23, 2022, the Allahabad High Court sentenced him to five years in prison under the Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of a jail superintendent in Lucknow in 1999. Earlier in the same month, the High Court convicted him of criminal intimidation of a jail officer 19 years ago.
- On December 14, 2022, he was summoned before a court in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, following which law enforcement officials arrested him in a money laundering case; the gangster is lodged in Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh.
- On June 5, 2023, a Varanasi court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder of Awadhesh Rai 32 years ago. On August 3, 1991, Awadhesh Rai, brother of Congress leader and former MP Ajay Rai, was shot dead outside Ajay Rai’s residence in Varanasi.
- On March 13, 2024, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special MP/MLA court in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, in the 1990 forgery of arms license case.
net worth
According to the affidavit he filed during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, his net worth is around Rs 22 crore.
die
He died of cardiac arrest at Rani Durgawati Medical College in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh on March 28, 2024. He was treated for abdominal pain in the hospital on March 26, 2024 and was later released, with his family claiming that he was “poisoned”.
Facts/Trivia
- His grandfather, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, was one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia University and served as its president from 1928 to 1936. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was also a renowned surgeon who led an Indian medical team to treat wounded Turkish soldiers during the Balkan Wars. Dr. Ansari studied at Charing Cross Hospital in London, and a medical ward at the hospital is named after him.
Indian medical team member Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari provides medical care to wounded Turkish soldiers during the Balkan Wars
- Former Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari is the great-nephew of Mukhtar Ansari’s grandfather Ahmed Ansari.
- In 2010, he was expelled from the Socialist Party of the Philippines for his involvement in criminal activities.
Mukhtar Ansari joins the Socialist Party of the Philippines
- He is considered the Robin Hood of the eastern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He helped the poor in the area by granting loans and financing the weddings of poor daughters.
- MX Player’s original crime drama web series Raktanchal is reportedly inspired by real events from Purvanchal in the 80s; specifically the rivalry between the gangs of Brijesh Singh and Mukhtar Ansari.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education