Lucknow: A court here on Monday sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment for killing Congress leader Awadhesh Rai in broad daylight in Varanasi 31 years ago. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him. An additional fine of Rs 20,000 was also imposed on former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mukhtar Ansari under another section. In case of failure to pay the fine, Mukhtar will have to serve another six months in jail.  

During the sentencing, Mukhtar attended the hearing from Banda jail through video conferencing. He first pleaded not guilty, then pleaded for the least punishment,  citing his age. Gangster Mukhtar Ansari, who was synonymous with terror in Purvanchal for decades through his gang, has received the biggest punishment for his crimes so far. Despite more than 50 cases registered against Mukhtar, he could not be convicted in any case for decades, but it is probably the effect of the change of power that during the last one year, he has been sentenced in 4 cases. Mukhtar is now going to spend his entire life in jail in the Awadhesh Rai murder case of 1991. Let me tell you that in this case too, Mukhtar would have escaped because he had made the 'case diary' of Awadhesh Rai murder case disappear from the court on the strength of his influence, after which the court today sentenced Mukhtar to life imprisonment without the original case diary. Keep in mind that mafias like Mukhtar-Atiq had such terror in UP that even high court judges refused to hear their cases and those who heard them also had to hear the verdict in favor of the mafia. All this happened because these gangsters had the protection of the government. The Congress also tried its best to save Mukhtar from the law.   

Mukhtar Ansari and Congress:

Gangster's grandfather Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari has been the national president of the Congress. Hamid Ansari, who was the Vice President of the country for 10 years, is Mukhtar's uncle. Hamid Ansari was also accused of endangering the lives of RAW agents when he was vice president. The result of these relations with the Congress was that the Congress government of Punjab had made every effort to keep Mukhtar in its jail. It was later revealed that the Punjab government was giving VIP treatment to Mukhtar in jail. Harjot Singh Bains, a minister in the AAP government in Punjab, had claimed that the previous Congress government gave VIP treatment to Mukhtar in jail and spent Rs 55 lakh on amenities, which the AAP government had flatly refused to pay. Mukhtar was imprisoned in a Punjab jail for 2 years and 3 months. Later, on the court's order, Mukhtar was shifted to Banda jail in UP. However, it is also a question that why was the Congress protecting Mukhtar, who killed his own party leader Awadhesh Rai? Was it a vote bank or an old family relationship?