Varanasi, 13 March (HS): Mafia Mukhtar Ansari, lodged in Banda jail of Uttar Pradesh, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Special MP-MLA Court of Varanasi on Wednesday in a case related to fake arms license. Special MP-MLA Court Judge Avnish Gautam had on Tuesday convicted mafia Mukhtar Ansari in this 36-year-old case after proving the charges under sections 428, 467, 468, 120B of the IPC and section 30 of the Arms Act. At the time of sentencing, Mukhtar Ansari appeared in the court through video conferencing from Banda jail. In another case, Mukhtar, who is serving life imprisonment in Banda jail, has been sentenced for the eighth time.
Mukhtar was also sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of Awadhesh Rai, brother of Congress state president Ajay Rai.
According to the prosecution, Mukhtar Ansari had applied to the District Magistrate of Ghazipur on June 10, 1987 for the license of a double barrel gun. The allegation was that Mukhtar had obtained the arms license by obtaining the recommendation by forging the signatures of the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Ghazipur. When the fraud came to light, CBCID had registered a case against Mukhtar Ansari, the then Deputy Collector and five named and unknown others at Mohammadabad police station in Ghazipur on December 4, 1990.
A charge sheet was filed in 1997 against the then Ordnance Clerk Gaurishankar Srivastava and Mukhtar Ansari. Due to the death of Gaurishankar Srivastava during the hearing of the case, the case against him was closed on 18 August 2021. ADGC Vinay Kumar Singh and Prosecution Officer Uday Raj Shukla presented their side on behalf of the prosecution in the court.
