Mukhtar Ansari: Grandson of Indian Army’s officer, first FIR at 15 - Life of gangster-politician

Mukhtar Ansari, one of India’s most-dreaded gangster-politicians, died on Thursday (Mar 28) of cardiac arrest in a hospital in Banda in the northernUttar Pradesh state.

Mukhtar Ansari'sdeath came days after his brother and Ghazipur Member of Parliament Afzal Ansari had alleged that he was being subjected to "slow poisoning" in jail, a claim vehemently rejected by the authorities.

The gangster-turned-politician got elected as a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh assembly five times on tickets of various political parties.

Belonging to a very influentialpolitical family, Ansari ran afoul of the law at the age of 15 when he was charged with criminal intimidation at Saidpur Police Station of Ghazipur. Here are 10 facts about the now-dead gangster, encompassing his early life and his flourishing mafia empire.

1. Ansari hailed from a political family. His grandfather Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was a well-known leader of the Congress party and also served as its president in 1927. During his death, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was serving as Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University.
   
2. Ansari’s maternal grandfather Brigadier Mohammad Usman was a decorated officer in the Indian Army. He died in Kashmir during a war with Pakistan in 1948.
   
3. Ansari got his first criminal case registered against him at the age of 15, in 1978. He was booked for criminal intimidation.
   
4. Ansari leveraged his position in the contract mafia circle. In 1986, a murder case was registered at Muhammad Police Station of Ghazipur.
   
5. By 2005, Ansari had 28 criminal cases registered against him
   
6. Since September 2022, he has been convicted in eight criminal cases and at the time of his death, was facing trial in 21 cases in several courts.
   
7. One of the most high-profile cases against Ansari was the murder of the then-sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005. In April 2023, a court sentenced him to 10 years in jail in the case.
   
8. In October 2023, a local court gave Ansari 10 years in prison for a 2010 Gangster Act case lodged against him. In June, he had been convicted for killing the brother of a Congress legislator and sentenced to life imprisonment.
   
9. Since 2020, the Ansari gang has been under intense scrutiny by Uttar Pradesh police, with authorities seizing and demolishing assets and properties belonging to its gangsters.
   
10. In 2022, Ansari passed on the baton to his elder son Abbas Ansari, who is a sitting legislator in the UP assembly from Mau representing the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party.

(With inputs from agencies)