Awadhesh Rai, was fatally shot on August 3, 1991. Mukhtar Ansari, Bhim Singh, former MLA Abdul Kalim, and two other people I were mentioned by Mr. Rai in the FIR.
The 1988 murder of local contractor Sachchidanand Rai was the case that brought Mukhtar Ansari to public attention for the first time. After this murder, he is thought to have entered the criminal underworld.
The court today at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, found jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari guilty of the murder of a 32-year-old man and sentenced him to life in imprisonment. Ansari, a five-time member of the legislative assembly, is accused of killing a Congressman in 1991, just as he was beginning to earn political repute.
Ajay Rai, a former state legislator and current regional leader of the Congress party’s Uttar Pradesh branch, is the brother of Awadesh Rai, a leader in the party. Rai expressed his satisfaction with the verdict, saying it marked the “end of our 32-year struggle against a terrible criminal.” “I remained waiting, along with my parents, Awadhesh’s daughter, and the entire family…Governments shifted power while Mukhtar became stronger. However, we persisted. Due to the work of our solicitors, the court today found Mukhtar guilty of my brother’s murder.
Awadhesh Rai, a Congress official and the brother of former MLA Ajay Rai, was fatally shot on August 3, 1991, in front of Ajay Rai’s Varanasi home. At the time of the crime, Mukhtar Ansari was not an MLA.
Mukhtar Ansari, Bhim Singh, former MLA Abdul Kalim, and two other people were mentioned by Mr. Rai in the FIR. In the 61 criminal cases brought against him, Ansari has been found guilty six times. There are currently 20 more cases against him that are going to trial around the state. This April, Mukhtar Ansari, received a 10-year prison sentence in a kidnapping and murder case.
Image courtesy: Hindustan times
After hearing closing arguments in the Awadhesh Rai case on May 19, the Varanasi MP MLA court reserved its ruling and set June 5 as the delivery date. The CB-CID was given control of the case’s investigation.
Assembly elections were won by Mukhtar Ansari five times: in 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017. While he was incarcerated, his last three triumphs occurred. In 2022, his son Abbas Ansari of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) won the Uttar Pradesh assembly election from his base in Mau Sadar.
The 1988 murder of local contractor Sachchidanand Rai was the case that brought Mukhtar Ansari to public attention for the first time. After this murder, he is thought to have entered the criminal underworld, and a lengthy list of victims followed. There are about 60 criminal charges against him, including ones for murder, extortion, and land grabs.
In what is arguably the most dramatic political slaying in Uttar Pradesh’s history, Mukhtar Ansari was also charged. In November 2005, he was accused of using an AK-47 weapon to murder BJP lawmaker Krishnanand Rai. 400 bullet shells are said to have been found there. From Rai’s body, as many as 21 bullets were found.
Image courtesy: Hindustan times
Ansari was charged with killing Ram Singh Maurya in 2010. Mannat Singh, a neighbourhood contractor who was allegedly murdered by Ansari’s gang in 2009, was reportedly assassinated in front of Maurya.
Other cases in detail:
Awadeshi Rai case:
On August 3, 1991, Awadhesh Rai was fatally murdered outside Ajay Rai’s home in Varanasi. Lawyers claim that at around one in the morning, assailants, including Mukhtar Ansari, drove up to the two brothers as they stood at the gate of their home and shot Awadhesh. Ajay fired back with his legal weapon in reprisal, but the attackers ran, abandoning the car behind. Awadhesh was sent to a hospital in Kabir Chaura right away, but there, the doctors pronounced him dead.
Soon after his brother was killed, Rai registered a FIR at the Varanasi Chetganj police station, naming Mukhtar Ansari, as well as the MLAs Abdul Kalam, Bhim Singh, Kamlesh Singh, and Rakesh Srivastava aka Rakesh Justice; Kalam and Singh later passed away, while the others were imprisoned.
Ram Singh Maurya case:
According to Superintendent of Police for Mau, Ajay Mohan Sharma, Ramsingh Maurya was shot and killed last night in front of the RTO office for the Mau district, 125 km away, by unidentified motorcycle-borne attackers. Ramsingh passed away there and then, but police constable Satish Kumar was shot and is now in the hospital.
Ramsingh, an inhabitant of Narai Bandh colony in Mau, was the only eyewitness to Manna Singh’s murder in August of last year, for which Ansari has been prosecuted. An FIR of murder and conspiracy has been filed against Ansari, Hanuman Pandey, and three others as a result of a complaint made by Ramsingh’s family.
