Last week, a Varanasi court sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, 60, to life imprisonment in the murder of Awadhesh Rai, the brother of senior Congress leader and five-time MLA Ajay Rai. It was the fifth case in less than 10 months in which Mr. Ansari, a five-time MLA who wields influence across eastern Uttar Pradesh had been convicted. In April, a Ghazipur court sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment in a case dating back to 2007. Today, Mr. Ansari, who has been in jail since 2005, faces more than five dozen cases, some for serious offences.
In contrast, his grandfather Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari had been the president of the two most prominent pre-independence political parties: the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Muslim League during the freedom movement. He was one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University and was its chancellor between 1928 and 1936.
In April 2021, the Supreme Court directed the Punjab police to hand over custody of Mr. Ansari to U.P., after he spent roughly 28 months in Punjab’s Ropar jail in connection with a case of extortion and criminal intimidation lodged in that State.
