Varanasi: The MP/MLA court in Varanasi has sentenced gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari to five and a half years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 in the case related to threatening the family after the kidnapping of coal businessman Nand Kishore Rungta.
The case was going on in the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate/MP-MLA court. The Special Magistrate MLA Court, after finding the accused guilty under Section 506 Part 2, has sentenced them to five years and six months of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000.
What is the case?
Mukhtar was accused of threatening Mahavir Prasad Rungta, brother of coal businessman Nand Kishore Rungta. Following the kidnapping of coal businessman Nand Kishore Rungta, his family members faced bomb threats. Subsequently, Mahavir Prasad Rungta filed a case regarding the bomb threat at the Bhelupur police station on November 5, 1997. After an investigation, the police filed a charge sheet against Mukhtar in connection with the threat case during the same period.
On January 22, 1997, Ataur Rahman Babu, Mukhtar's brother-in-law and a coal businessman from Hazaribagh, visited the office of Nand Kishore Rungta, who resided in Jawahar Nagar Colony within the jurisdiction of Bhelupur police station in Varanasi. Ataur convinced Nand Kishore to sit in his car under the pretext of showing him documents related to the coal business. It is alleged that Ataur then kidnapped Nand Kishore Rungta by administering intoxicants to him in tea. Mukhtar Ansari reportedly contacted Rungta's family for ransom, demanding a sum of Rs 5 crore.
Was sentenced to 10 years jail term in October?
Earlier in October this year, Ansari was awarded 10 years imprisonment by Ghazipur MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the murder of one Kapil Dev Singh and the 2010 attempt to murder case of Mir Hasan in which he was a key conspirator. The Uttar Pradesh court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Ansari who was found guilty under the Gangster Act lodged against him in 2010. Ansari has been convicted in six separate cases registered against him in the last 13 months.
Mukhtar Ansari has won the assembly elections several times. Uttar Pradesh Police has dozens of cases registered against Ansari for crimes ranging from murder to many other crimes. Police have taken action against many illegal properties of Mukhtar. Notably, the state police, so far, have confiscated properties over worth Rs 300 crore owned by Ansari and his gang members, under the provisions of the Gangster Act. Properties worth Rs 284.77 lakh were demolished, and illegal possessions were freed from Ansari and his men.
A total of 65 cases were registered against mafia Mukhtar Ansari, seven were convicted in the Yogi government.
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