His death following a heart attack in a hospital in Banda once again highlights the complex intertwining of crime, benefaction and politics.The gravity of the cases against Ansari is common knowledge in UP among police officials and the bureaucracy. His name evoked awe and fear in vast parts of UP, such as the districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Ballia and beyond the state. While much has been written and is known about his political journey and criminal activities, a few incidents stand apart and underline his sheer audacity.MLA’s murderThe most sensational among the cases against Ansari was the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in November 2005. The killers fired more than 600 rounds from AK-47 guns to kill Rai and six others in Ghazipur. Many eye-witnesses in this case also died under mysterious circumstances and in April 2023, a court in Ghazipur convicted and sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to 10 years imprisonment for this crime. Rai’s wife Alka and son Piyush, and several of their supporters, celebrated the news of Ansari’s death, even as politicians from the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and AIMIM expressed condolences.People who met him and benefited from his action remember him as a towering personality, mostly clad in white, with an aura of power enhanced by a thick, upturned moustache.Even when he was wheelchair-bound, he dressed in white, although the visuals from Banda jails showed him much emaciated and weak. He owned a collection of high-end cars and SUVs, and till some years ago, whenever he visited Lucknow, his presence was marked by the sight of huge black cars all having similar numbers driving in a row.An extraordinary example of his inter-state clout was his stay in a jail in Ropar (also known as Rupnagar) where he was brought on a production warrant in January 2019 in a case of extortion of Rs 10 crores from a builder of Mohali. Notably, the UP government had sent more than 20 reminders to the then Congress government in Punjab headed by Captain Amarinder Singh for Ansari’s custody and finally it approached the Supreme Court, alleging that Punjab government was protecting Ansari. The top court on March 26, 2021, directed Punjab to hand over Ansari’s custody to the UP government within two weeks. The Punjab government had been avoiding Ansari’s transfer from Ropar to UP for nearly two years, citing Ansari’s medical condition. Ansari remained wheelchair-bound whenever photographed during this period.On April 6, 2021, he was transferred to UP amid high drama and high security.Extensive empireAn idea of the size and extent of Ansari’s empire can be had from the fact that the UP Police have, so far, confiscated and demolished properties valued at over Rs 608 crore belonging to him. His empire spread across numerous districts of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab. Nearly 300 of his associates have faced legal action in the past few years.A report in June last year had said that the Income Tax department, under Project Panther, had unearthed several benami properties of Mukhtar Ansari, and their number was more in Punjab and other states than in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 50 benami properties belonging to Ansari and in the name of his aide Ganesh Dutt Mishra worth over Rs 250 crore had been identified.
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