New Delhi: A special CBI court in Delhi Wednesday acquitted gangster-turned-politician from Uttar Pradesh Mukhtar Ansari, his brother and MP Afzal Ansari and five others in connection with the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai in Ghazipur, UP, in 2005.
In his judgment, special CBI judge Arun Bhardwaj said the enmity between Ansari brothers and Rai wasn’t grave enough motive for the former to commit murder.
It observed, “It is a case of political factionalism which cannot be stretched to enmity of such enormity where A-2 Afzal Ansari and A-6 Mukhtar Ansari can be attributed a motive to murder Krishnanand Rai.”
The court, however, noted the case had “suffered” as several crucial witnesses turned hostile.
“The case in hand is another example of prosecution failing due to hostile witnesses. If the witnesses in this case had the benefit of Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 during trial, the result may have been different,” judge Bhardwaj observed.
While acquitting the seven accused, the court also said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges framed against them.
Rai was murdered in November 2005 along with six others after being ambushed by armed gunmen when they were travelling.
The trial was transferred from Ghazipur to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2013 on a petition filed by Rai’s wife, Alka.
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‘Lack of murder motive’
The court traced the relationship shared by Ansari brothers and Rai to figure out whether the former had a motive to murder Rai.
Afzal Ansari, who was elected as a Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Ghazipur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and Rai had been political rivals since 1996 when they both contested from Mohammadabad legislative constituency in Ghazipur. While Afzal had won the election in 1996, he lost to Rai in 2002.
According to the prosecution, Rai’s popularity was increasing in his constituency and this made Afzal “insecure”. The prosecution also recalled a firing incident from 2004 between the two factions, leading to lodging of cross FIRs. This, it said, resulted in Rai getting life threats from the Ansari brothers on several occasions. These allegations of enmity were relied on to prove motive for the murder.
The court, however, opined that political opponents losing elections could not result in an enmity so grave to result in a murder. It said: “This court is of the considered view that when a contestant loses legislative assembly elections, it will not result in enmity of such a nature and enormity that he will think of murdering his opponent who has defeated him.”
As for the case at hand, it noted that Afzal’s electoral loss in 2002 came as a “blessing in disguise” as he won the election as a Member of Parliament from Gazipur constituency in 2005.
“A-2 Afzal Ansari was only MLA of U.P. Legislative Assembly since 1984. However, when he lost the election of MLA of legislative assembly of Mohammadabad to Krishnanand Rai, he got an opportunity to contest the election of Member of Parliament which is more prestigious election in the country than the election of MLA of State Legislative Assembly. So there was no reason for A-2 Afzal Ansari to nurture ill will for the deceased Krishnanand Rai,” the court observed.
The court, therefore, concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove “enmity of such a nature and enormity” so as to cause Ansari brothers to conspire to commit Rai’s murder.
Three of five eyewitnesses turned hostile
According to the judgment, three of the five eyewitnesses turned hostile. Two of them, Anjani Kumar Rai and Manoj Kumar Rai, were in the car following the one in which Rai was travelling. The third eyewitness, Ram Kirat Singh, was allegedly driving that car.
Another important claim mentioned by the prosecution that the gunmen shouted “maaro saale ko, Mukhtar bhai aur Afzal bhai ko bahut pareshan karta hai (Hit that scoundrel, he makes lives of Mukhtar bhai and Afzal bhai difficult)”, was not supported by these three eyewitnesses.
Other crucial witnesses backtracked
Another witness, Nand Lal Rai, who was crucial for the prosecution to prove the conspiracy charge as he had previously claimed to have seen gunmen with sophisticated weapons outside the Ansari brothers’ house, changed his statement.
While his statement was previously recorded by a magistrate, he did not support the prosecution in court, claiming that he had been “forced” to depose before the magistrate.
Similar claims were made by another witness, Ramesh Chand Rai.
Another witness Prem Chand Rai, who was important for the CBI to prove the conspiracy charge, also backtracked. According to the judgment, he had initially claimed to have heard Mukhtar Ansari say that “after cancellation of his bail, he was going to jail and to finish Krishnanand otherwise he would not allow him to live”.
As per Prem Chand’s submissions, Mukhtar had made the statements outside a fast track court in the presence of several people.
However, during the hearing, Prem Chand deposed that he had not heard Mukhtar clearly and instead “made guesswork and estimation”.
The court also found it “contrary to natural human conduct” that the Ansari brothers would have conspired in broad daylight, as claimed by Prem Chand.
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This failure of Judiciary systems.
Judiciary should interrogate.
THIS IS A SHAME FOR JUDICIARY AND MEDIA AND OUR GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN INDIA.
MAY GOD DO JUSTICE WITH ALL. WE CANT RELY ON OUR JUDICIARY AND GOVERNMENT
This is irony of witness system in justice.it is clear that who had done criminal activity but but our law system failed to prove it.
The verdict comes 15 years after the murder. Is it any surprise that witnesses die, or are intimidated or are paid off? This is a primary result of delays that are endemic in the judiciary. The higher judiciary is busy wasting time on vacations and politicking through PILs. What does it matter to them whether murderers and criminals go free.