Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has been sentenced to five years and six months in prison in a 26-year-old case related to threatening a witness in Varanasi. The MP/MLA court in Varanasi delivered the verdict, imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 on Ansari. Failure to pay the fine would result in an additional two months of imprisonment. The case, registered on November 5, 1997, under IPC section 506 (criminal intimidation) at Bhelupur police station, involved Ansari threatening businessman Mahabir Prasad Rungta, a witness in the murder case of his brother, coal trader Nand Kishore Rungta.
Currently incarcerated in Banda jail, this marks the seventh case in the past 15 months where Ansari has been convicted and sentenced. The recent case pertains to Ansari’s intimidation of Mahavir Prasad Rungta, who had witnessed the murder of Nand Kishore Rungta. In October of this year, Ansari received a 10-year imprisonment sentence from the Ghazipur MP/MLA court in connection with the murder of Kapil Dev Singh and the 2010 attempted murder case of Mir Hasan. The court also imposed a Rs 5 lakh fine, citing violations of the Gangster Act.
The UP government, responding to a Supreme Court petition by Ansari’s son Umar Ansari seeking his transfer outside UP, assured that it would enhance Ansari’s security within Banda jail if necessary. The Supreme Court bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol is reviewing the plea for Ansari’s transfer to a prison outside UP.