The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday attached seven immovable assets of gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari in connection with a money laundering case against him and his family. The properties, provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, are worth Rs 1.48 crore (registry value) while their circle rate at the time of registration was Rs 3.42 crore. Ansari, a former BSP leader, was booked by the agency last year for alleged money laundering on the basis of multiple cases registered by UP police related to land-grabbing and illegal businesses operated by him and his gang members. The five-time former MLA is currently lodged in a jail in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda. He was last questioned by the ED in 2021. In August this year, the agency raided the official residence of his elder brother and BSP MP Afzal Ansari in Delhi and some locations in Ghazipur, Mohammadabad (in Ghazipur district), Mau and Lucknow. The agency had questioned Afzal Ansari in the case in May. According to the ED, the money laundering case against Mukhtar Ansari stems from multiple FIRs lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police, besides two FIRs lodged against a partnership firm called Vikas Constructions that was run by his wife, two brothers-in-law and other people. “The company was used for constructing godowns on public and government land after encroaching on them. The godowns were constructed in Mau and Ghazipur districts of Uttar Pradesh. Vikas Construction was being run by Afshan Ansari, who is wife of Mukhtar Ansari and her two brothers Atif Raza and Anwar Shahzad, a person identified as Ravindra Narayan Singh, and Zakir Hussain,” the ED said. “Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a charge sheet in one of the FIRs registered at Mau in which all the partners of the firm (Vikas Construction) have been named as accused,” the agency said. The ED said during investigation, they have found that rent of Rs 15 crore was collected by Vikas Construction from the Food Corporation of India by renting out godowns illegally constructed by encroaching public/government land at Mau and Ghazipur districts. “This rent was further used to purchase immovable properties in the name of Vikas Construction and Afshan Ansari. Further investigation to trace out the remaining process of crime is under progress,” the ED said.
