Whitewashing the misdeeds of the criminal and shedding tears for terrorists like Yakub Menon and Afzal Guru has long been a practise of those on the left of the political spectrum. Recently, Gabbar0099, a Twitter user, wrote a lengthy thread about gangster Mukhtar Ansari, who is currently serving his prison term.
From their tweets, a Twitter user appeared to be a fervent Hinduphobe, therefore it was very predictable that the motivation behind a thread on Mukhtar Ansari was to whitewash his crimes and paint him as some sort of hero for the poor and so called oppressed Muslim community.
The twitter user tried to whitewash the gangster’s crimes on the basis of the past reputation of his family members who have served in the Indian Army. The tweet garnered 3k likes and 627 retweets.
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Fact Check
We did the keyword search “Criminal history of the gangster Mukhtar Ansari” and came across many media reports. In our fact checking report, we will highlight some most known crimes committed by the jailed gangster turned politician, Mukhtar Ansari.
1. Murder of Sachidanand Rai
According to India Today report, the first significant criminal case against Mukhtar Ansari was filed in 1988. In Ghazipur, he allegedly murdered contractor Sachidanand Rai over a contract for the mandi parishad. However, Sachidanand is still waiting for justice as the case is still pending in court.
2. Awadhesh Rai murder case
According to the Dainik Bhaskar report, Awadhesh Rai was shot dead outside his home on August 3, 1991. Awadhesh Rai, Congress politician, and his younger brother were standing outside his house. In a broad daylight then a Maruti van appeared, and a few guys emerged from the van, shooting bullets at Awadhesh Rai. He was then transferred to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Mukhtar Ansari, former MLA Abdul Kalam, Bhim Singh, Kamlesh Singh, Rakesh, and others were charged at Chetganj police station. However, last year it was revealed that the original case diary pertaining to the murder of Awadhesh had gone missing. As a result, the matter was delayed for an extended period of time. According to the police, Ansari inappropriately made the case diary disappear. However, 31 years later, on the complaint of Vinod Mishra, the in-charge of the court post, a case was registered against sections 409 and 120B of the IPC at the Cantt police station.
3. Krishnanand Rai murder case
The keyword search led us to the report by Times now. As per the report, in broad daylight in November 29, 2005, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA (2002 – 2005) from Mohammadabad Assembly constituency in Ghazipur, Krishnanand Rai, along with 6 others, was murdered by Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari.
Krishnanand Rai ran on the BJP ticket in the 2002 assembly election and beat Ansari’s brother Afzal in the Mohdabad seat. Rai’s triumph was viewed as a danger and a challenge to Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari’s political careers. As a consequence, they killed the seven people who posed a challenge to them. They were murdered with an AK47 after about 500 rounds of shooting.
The FIR was filed against Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari. Later the case was transferred to the CBCID, who later gave up on the case. Later, the widow of Krishnanand Rai, Alka Rai, appealed the Allahabad High Court to transfer the case to CBI.
In her petition appeal, Alka Rai, stated that her husband was previously aware of the death threat and the plan being hatched to murder him. As a result, he requested that the police strengthen his protection.
In May 2006, the court ordered the CBI investigation after Alka Rai submitted her plea. The Supreme Court later relocated the trial of the 2005 murder case from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi in 2013 on a petition filed by the deceased’s wife. But, in 2019, the court acquitted both brothers after all eyewitnesses and material witnesses turned hostile.
However, the case was registered and after many years of battling the long legal struggle, justice was finally rendered. On April 29, 2023, the Ghazipur MP/MLA Court sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to ten years of imprisonment and ordered him to pay a Rs 5 lakh fine. Afzal Ansari, his brother, was sentenced to four years in jail.
4. Money laundering and land grabbing case
According to the TOI, Mukhtar Ansari was arrested in a money laundering case by the Electorate Directorate (ED) in December 2022 and filed a case against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for extorting crores of rupees.
The case pertains to the Vikas construction firm land worth Rs 22.13 crore owned by Mukhtar Ansari in a partnership with his wife, and his two brother in law. The Vikas construction company was developed on pond property, which actually belonged to the gram Sabha.
Furthermore, Vikas Construction misusing its power built illegal godowns on public and government land after encroaching on it. The godowns were rented, and the accused received the illicit revenue that flowed from them.
Besides, it was found that the Rs 25 lakh which was meant for the construction of the school in Mau but Mukhtar had extorted that money which came from the MLALAD funds.
5. Murder and kidnapping case of NandKishore
To find out what happened to Nandkishore Rungta, we had to go back in time and look at the history. Mukhtar Ansari was a member of a criminal gang in the 1990s when he abducted Vishwa Hindu Parishad treasurer and coal businessman NandKishore.
The motive of this kidnapping was to obtain the Rs 5 crore ransom money so that he could start his political career. Mukhtar Ansari had been paid this ransom by the family, but he did not leave NandKishore and killed him. His body was never discovered. Mukhtar Ansari was charged with abduction and killing under the gangster act. The court, however, acquitted him.
However, the Nandkishore murder case was reopened during the same year that the Krishnanand Rai murder case was being investigated. When the verdict in the Krishnanand murder case was announced this year, the verdict in the Nandkishore murder case was also announced under the same judgement.
Hence, jailed gangster was not a hero or savior but a dreaded criminal who took many lives and destroyed many families over his greediness.
| Claim | Mukhtar Ansari is innocent |
| Claimed by | Twitter user |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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