Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh gangster Mukhtar Ansari has been convicted in the Awadesh Rai murder case dating back to 1991. The court of the special judge (MP-MLA) Avinash Gautam held the mafia don guilty in the case and sentenced life imprisonment.
Reacting to the sentence after 32 years of the incident, Ajay Rai said, “This is the end of our many years of waiting. I, my parents, Awadesh’s daughter, and the whole family kept patience… governments came and went and Mukhtar strengthened himself.”.
“Ansari was presented before the court through the video conference where the court convicted him under Section 145 and 302m”, said Advocate Vikash Singh.
Mukhtar Ansari is a dreaded gangster in UP who turned politician and has been an MLA for five consecutive terms- 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017. The last three victories came when he was in jail. Congress leader and brother of former MLA Ajay Rai, Awadhesh Rai was shot dead outside Ajay Rai’s house in Varanasi on August 3, 1991. Ajay Rai had named Mukhtar Ansari, Bhim Singh, and former MLA Abdul Kalim in the FIR.
The investigation of the case was handed over to CB-CID during the hearing of the case in June 2022. The entire case was heard based on photocopies and this is the first case wherein verdict has been pronounced on the basis of duplicate papers. Varanasi MP MLA court had concluded the hearing after arguments on May 19 and reserved its order and fixed June 5 as the date for delivering it.