Mukhtar Ansari Jailed For Life In Three-Decade-Old Fake Gun License Case

A special Varanasi court on Wednesday sentenced gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment in a three-decade-old fake gun licence case.

The MP-MLA court of judge Awanish Gautam also slapped a fine totalling Rs 2 lakh on Ansari under various penal provisions, district government counsel Vinay Singh said.

He said the case against Ansari was registered under IPC sections 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), along with provisions of the Arms Act at Mohammadabad police station of Ghazipur district in December 1990.

According to the government counsel, Mukhtar Ansari joined the court proceedings via video conference from Banda Jail, where he is currently lodged.

According to police officials, around 60 cases are pending against the gangster-turned-politician in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, New Delhi and other states. He has so far been convicted in at least seven cases.

Mr Singh said that on June 10, 1987, Mukhtar Ansari had approached the district magistrate of Ghazipur for a gun licence. He later obtained the licence by forging the signatures of the then-district magistrate and the superintendent of police.

After the fraud was exposed, CB-CID filed a case against Ansari, the then-deputy collector and five people on December 4, 1990.

A charge sheet was sent in 1997 against the then-ordnance clerk Gaurishankar Srivastava and Ansari. After Srivastava's death, the case against him was dropped in 1997.

Born in 1963, Mukhtar Ansari has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. He last contested the assembly polls in 2017. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)