A special court in Varanasi sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment in a fake arms licence case on Wednesday. This comes a day after the court convicted Ansari in the 36-year-old case.
District government counsel Vinay Singh stated that besides the sentence, the MP-MLA court of judge Awanish Gautam also slapped Ansari with a fine totaling Rs 2 lakh under various penal provisions, as reported by news agency PTI. He stated the case against Ansari was registered under IPC sections 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), along with provisions of the Arms Act at Mohammadabad police station of Ghazipur district in December 1990.
According to the government counsel, Ansari joined the court proceedings via video conference from Banda Jail, where he is currently lodged.
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According to police officials, around 60 cases are pending against the gangster-turned-politician in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and New Delhi, PTI reported. He has so far been convicted in at least seven cases.
Fake Arms Licence Case
Singh said that on June 10, 1987, Ansari had approached the district magistrate of Ghazipur for a gun licence. He later obtained the licence by forging the signatures of the then-district magistrate and the superintendent of police. After the case came to light, CB-CID filed a case against Ansari, the then-deputy collector, and five people on December 4, 1990.
A charge sheet was sent in 1997 against the then-ordnance clerk Gaurishankar Srivastava and Ansari. After Srivastava's death, the case against him was dropped in 1997. Born in 1963, Ansari has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He last contested the assembly polls in 2017.