Curtains are down on mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari as his sudden death in Banda jail brought an end to an era of alleged criminal activities under his watch.

Ansari, a graduate student from PG College, Ghazipur, was once counted among the good cricket players. Bad company pushed Mukhtar Ansari towards the dirty path of the crime world. Mukhtar was elected MLA for five consecutive times on the political ground created through muscle power. Mukhtar Ansari died behind bars on Thursday night after being in jail for almost 18 years and six months.

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Mukhtar was born on June 20, 1963, the third son of Subhanullah Ansari, former chairman of the Municipal Council, Muhammadabad. Mukhtar’s grandfather Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was a freedom fighter. While being an ally of Mahatma Gandhi, he was also the President of Congress in 1926-27. His mother’s father Usman was Army Brigadier and was awarded Mahavir Chakra for his bravery. Former Vice President of the country Hamid Ansari is also Mukhtar Ansari’s maternal uncle.

He was associated with the Sadhu-Maknu gang in the 80s and gradually became a mafia leader by setting up his own gang. In the year 1997, Mukhtar Ansari’s interstate gang (IS-191) was registered in the police dossier. When Mukhtar went behind the bars on October 25, 2005, he could not come out. Meanwhile, from 1996 to 2022, he was elected MLA from Mau Sadar Assembly for five consecutive times.

Mukhtar reached the assembly for the first time by winning from Mau Sadar Assembly in 1996 on a BSP ticket. After this, he became an independent MLA in 2002 and 2007. Then, he formed his new party named Qaumi Ekta Dal and won the 2012 assembly elections. In the year 2017, Mukhtar Ansari won the election from BSP ticket. He won the last three assembly elections while in jail.

An example of Mukhtar’s influence in the jails of UP is the story of Ghazipur jail. Mukhtar Ansari had surrendered after violence broke out in Mau in 2005. He was kept in Ghazipur jail. Mukhtar was an MLA then. Mukhtar used to decide the contracts and leases of railways, scrap, coal, silk etc. from Purvanchal to Bihar.

He had also established a big business of illegally importing fish from Andhra Pradesh and selling it in many districts of Purvanchal. Warehouses and hotels were built by occupying government land in Ghazipur. During the SP government, he stayed in Lucknow for a long time on the pretext of getting treatment at KGMU. It is said that he had dug a pond in the jail itself to eat fresh fish.

Mukhtar was also fond of weapons and was perfect in shooting. He had also succeeded in making his son Abbas Ansari an international shooter by taking advantage of his Punjab connections. However, STF also tightened the legal screws on Abbas for purchasing a large number of banned weapons without permission.

Mukhtar also kept getting modern weapons from Punjab. Mukhtar had also given shelter to his close Lucknow resident Jugnu Walia in Punjab. In the year 2004, Mukhtar was accused of purchasing a machine gun (LMG) stolen from the army, which created a stir in the politics of the state. The then STF Deputy SP Shailendra Singh, who was tightening the legal grip on Mukhtar, had to pay the price for revealing this and resigned under extreme pressure.

In this case, POTA was imposed on Mukhtar, which was the strictest law of that era. This machine gun was to be used to kill MLA Krishnanand Rai, for which Mukhtar had given Rs 1 crore. On January 25, 2004, STF raided Chaubepur area of Varanasi and arrested Babulal Yadav and Munnar Yadav, who had come to sell LMG. LMG and two hundred cartridges were recovered from them.

In October 2005, riots broke out during the three-tier Panchayat elections in Mau and Mukhtar had to go to jail. After this, BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai was murdered on November 29,2005 and then with changing governments, jails also kept changing, but Mukhtar Ansari could not come out.

But after BJP came to power in UP in 2017, things changed for Mukhtar. In January 2019, on the complaint of a Mohali builder, the police had registered a case against Ansari for demanding extortion of Rs 10 crore . Mohali Police took Mukhtar Ansari to Mohali from Uttar Pradesh on production warrant. He remained in Ropar jail for 26 months.

In two years, the UP Police team went to Punjab eight times to pick up Ansari, but every time the Punjab Police refused to hand him over citing health, security and Corona reasons. After the encounter of Bikaru case accused Vikas Dubey in Kanpur, Ansari had also said that there was a threat to his life. At the same time, the opposition had alleged that he was being given facilities in jail in Punjab. Ultimately, after the order of the Supreme Court, he was shifted to Banda Jail in UP.

In 2021, Mukhtar was shifted to Banda jail. In the jail, he was monitored 24 hours by CCTV cameras. There was a ban on meeting relatives. The strictness was so much that Deputy Jailer Vireshwar Pratap Singh, who was lenient on Mukhtar in the jail, has been suspended.

Around 65 cases pending against Mukhtar even though in the past 18 months he has been convicted in 8 cases which included life term in 2 cases.