Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment in a case related to the use of forged documents for obtaining an arms licence in 1990. This is the eighth case in which the former five-time MLA has been convicted and sentenced by a court in UP in the past two years. The Varanasi MP/MLA court on Wednesday handed Ansari life imprisonment under Sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and seven years under Sections 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of IPC. Ansari, who was pronounced guilty by Special Judge (MP/MLA court) Awanish Gautam on Tuesday, was also sentenced to six months imprisonment under Section 30 of the Arms Act. All the sentences will run concurrently, it is learnt. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ansari who is currently lodged in the Banda jail. The case was lodged at Ghazipur’s Mohammadabad police station against Ansari and others, alleging that they conspired to obtain a licence for a double-barrel gun with forged signatures of the then district magistrate and the superintendent of police. After the forgery came to light, a case was filed against Ansari, the then-deputy collector, then ordnance clerk Gaurishankar Srivastava, and four others in December 1990. A charge-sheet in the case was filed in 1997 against Ansari and Gaurishankar Srivastava. The case against Srivastava was dropped after he died during the course of the trial. In a statement after Ansari’s sentencing on Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh Police said he is facing a total of 65 cases and 21 of which are being heard in different courts. The cases are registered in Lucknow, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Sonbhadra, Mau, Agra, Barabanki, and Azamgarh besides New Delhi and Punjab. In December last year, he was sentenced to five-and-half years in jail in a 26-year-old case for threatening to kill a businessman in Varanasi. On October 10 last year, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Gangsters Act case that was filed at Ghazipur in 2010. On June 5, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1991 murder and rioting case filed in Varanasi. On April 29, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail in a Gangsters Act case in connection with the murder of the BJP MLA Krishnand Rai in 2005. On December 15, 2022, Ansari was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a 1996 Gangsters Act case lodged in Ghazipur. On September 23, 2022, he was sentenced to five years in jail in a Gangsters Act case lodged in Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station in 1999. On September 21, 2022, he was sentenced to seven years in jail in a 2003 case of alleged assault on a public servant. Ansari has been elected as an MLA from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He last contested the Assembly polls in 2017. — With PTI inputs
