A Look at the Life and Times of Gangster-Turned-Politician Mukhtar Ansari of UP

Gangster--turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari from Eastern Uttar Pradesh died on Thursday after a long prison confinement. Speaking to ETV Bharat, former IPS officer Rajesh Pandey narrated the criminal activities of Ansari.

Lucknow:Mukhtar Ansari, the gangster-turned-politician, died of a heart attack after a long prison confinement. Ansari, the former five-time MLA from Uttar Pradesh's Mau, had witnessed convictions, acquittals and pending trials one after another, with multiple criminal cases pending against him.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, former IPS Rajesh Pandey, who was Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Lucknow for a long time, narrated the criminal activities of Ansari. The former IPS officer said, “In 2016, Mukhtar Ansari was lodged in Lucknow jail and was going to the medical college for treatment. There were seven ambulances and several vehicles in his convoy. As the convoy stopped at the traffic signal at the Hazratganj intersection, many media persons presented there started to take photographs.”

“At the same time, a photojournalist peeked inside an ambulance present in the convoy to take a photo of Mukhtar Ansari. As soon as the photographer put his head in through the window, Mukhtar's henchmen present inside pulled him, beat him and threw him away,” Pandey added.

Rajesh Pandey further said, “I was the Senior Superintendent of Police of Lucknow at that time. When the police urged the scribes to lodge a complaint against Ansari they refused." Pandey said that in 2002, he was the SP of Lucknow and his office was in Hazratganj. The STF and Lucknow Police received the information that Mukhtar and his aides were collecting cartridges.

“We formed a team and first raided the residence of his brother Afzal Ansari in Darulshafa, but nothing was recovered there. After this, when our team reached Mukhtar's sister-in-law's house in Dalibagh, a huge cache of cartridges was recovered there. I registered a case against Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari at Hazratganj Police Station,” Pandey reminded.

“I was sitting in my office in the evening, suddenly Mukhtar Ansari came. At that time he was an MLA, so we called him inside the office and spoke to him. Ansari was already familiar to me as I had prepared his dossier while I was in STF. He started clarifying to me that he had nothing to do with the cartridges.”

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