Mukhtar Ansari, a gangster-turned-politician, was Monday sentenced to life imprisonment in the Awadhesh Rai murder case of 1991. Awadhesh Rai was the elder brother of Ajay Rai, a Congress leader. He was shot dead outside his house at Maldiya in Varanasi when he was 30 years old. Ajay Rai, a local strongman who was earlier in the BJP, had contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Congress candidate from Varanasi in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. What is the Awadhesh Rai murder case? According to the prosecution's case, on August 3, 1991, Awadhesh was standing outside his house in the Maldiya area of Varanasi when some assailants arrived in a car and opened fire at him. Ajay Rai and an associate Vijay Pandey were present at the spot, who rushed Awadhesh to the hospital. However, he was declared dead on arrival. An FIR was registered against five people, namely Mukhtar Ansari, Abdul Kalam, Bheem Singh, Kamlesh Singh, and Rakesh Kumar Srivastava at the Chetganj police station. The complainant was Ajay Rai, who claimed to have witnessed Mukhtar Ansari and his associates shooting his brother. According to former government counsel Alok Chandra, who had pursued the case, the murder was the fallout of a local "supremacy dispute". A few months later, the investigation of the case was transferred to UP Police's Crime Branch (CID). Kamlesh and Abdul Kalam are dead, while the case against Bheem Singh and Rakesh Srivastava is going on. After the verdict on Monday, Ajay Rai said, “This is the end of a long wait for us. My parents, I, Awadhesh’s daughter, and the whole family kept patience… Governments came and went and Mukhtar strengthened himself. But we did not give up. Because of our lawyers’ efforts, today the court has found Mukhtar guilty in the murder case of my brother.” Who is Ajay Rai? Rai, a five-time MLA, has been booked in several criminal cases over the years, and had been associated with the gangster Brijesh Singh. He belongs to the Bhumihar caste, holding some appeal over Bhumihar and Brahmin votes in the Varanasi region. Before joining the Congress, he has been with the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. He began his career with the BJP. After winning as an MLA from the Kolasla constituency thrice, he quit the party ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections when the BJP decided to field Murli Manohar Joshi. He then contested on an SP ticket, finishing third behind Joshi and Mukhtar Ansari, who was the BSP’s candidate. In 2012, he joined the Congress on the intervention of then AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh. In 2014, when he was contesting against PM Modi, Ansari’s party Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) had announced support to him. In 2021, after the UP Police took custody of Ansari from Punjab to bring him back to the state, Uttar Pradesh Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu wrote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Anandiben Patel, seeking to restore the security cover of Rai, as he was a witness against Ansari in the murder case of his brother.
