New Delhi: A Varanasi court on Friday sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to five and a half years of rigorous imprisonment in a case related to threatening the witness of the murder of a coal businessman Nand Kishore Rungta, news agency ANI reported.
A special MP-MLA court sentenced Ansari to the jail term along with a fine of Rs 10,000. If he fails to pay the fine, he will have to serve the jail term for additional two months.
Mukhtar Ansari was accused of threatening coal businessman Nand Kishore Rungta’s brother Mahavir Prasad Rungta following the former’s kidnap. After his family members received bomb threats, Mahavir Rungta filed a complaint at the Bhelupur police station on November 5, 1997. Based on the complaint, police probed into the matter and filed a chargesheet against Ansari in connection with the threat.
Earlier in October this year, Mukhtar Ansari was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment by Ghazipur MP/MLA court over his connection with the murder of Kapil Dev Singh and the 2010 attempt to murder case of Mir Hasan. The Uttar Pradesh court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh. Ansari was found guilty under the Gangster Act.
Notably, Ansari has been convicted in six separate cases over the last 13 months.
Meanwhile, the UP government told the Supreme Court on Friday that it will step up Ansari’s security inside the Banda jail if needed, news agency PTI reported.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol was hearing a petition by Ansari's son Umar Ansari who sought a direction to transfer his father to any prison outside UP.