Mukhtar Ansari acquitted in constable murder case

Mukhtar was among seven accused in the murder case of police constable Raghuvansh Rai. Five of the other accused have already been acquitted.

Rai was killed in an encounter at Mughalsarai on December 30,1991 while another constable Shivji Pandey sustained bullet injuries in the same incident. The police had then filed a chargesheet against all the accused persons.

There were six witnesses in the case including five policemen but none of them said that they had seen the men who fired upon them. They claimed they were at a distance of 100 metres and it was dark at that time,prosecution officer,Manju Pandey.

She said no one knows the details of the vehicle that was used in the crime.

The inspector who led the police party that was attacked had since died and the investigating officer did not mention anything about the vehicle in the case diary.

According to the prosecution,around 8 pm on December 30,1991,a team of police led by Mughalsarai police station in-charge Nanke Singh Gangwar were trailing a suspicious vehicle when it met with an accident.

The occupants then allegedly came out and fired at the police team,killing Rai and injuring another constable.

During the investigation,it was allegedly found that Mukhtar Ansari and his associates were inside the vehicle. Ansari was among the seven charge-sheeted in the case. Only Bhim Singh was produced before the court on Tuesday.

Mukhtar,who is currently lodged in Kanpur Jail,was not produced before the court. He was brought here from Kanpur Jail to record his statement on April 27.

Mukhtar is the BSP candidate from Varanasi constituency,which went to polls on April 16.