Mukhtar Ansari gets 5.5-year jail term

JAILED GANGSTER-POLITICIAN Mukhtar Ansari was on Friday sentenced to five years and six-months in jail in a 26-year-old case for threatening a businessman in Varanasi who was a witness in a murder case. The case was registered on November 5, 1997, against Ansari under IPC section 506 (criminal intimidation) at Bhelupur police station.

The UP police said on Friday said that an MP/MLA court in Varanasi on Friday sentenced Ansari to the prison term along with a fine of Rs 10,000 and if Ansari fails to pay the fine, he will have to spend an additional two months in jail. The case was filed based on a complaint by businessman Mahabir Prasad Rungta — a resident of Bhelupur in Varanasi.

Ansari is currently lodged in Banda jail. The case pertains to Ansari threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, who was a witness in the murder case of his brother and coal trader Nand Kishore Rungta. This is the seventh case in which Ansari was convicted and sentenced by a court in UP in the past 15 months.