Lucknow: Nearly 32 years after Congress leader Awadhesh Rai was gunned down outside his house, a Varanasi MP/MLA court Monday handed life imprisonment to jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and imposed a fine of Rs 1.20 lakh on him in connection with the case.
This is the fifth case in which Mukhtar has been convicted since September 2022.
Calling it a long-awaited victory, Awadesh Rai’s brother and former Congress MLA Ajay Rai remarked that someone who keeps standing against the mafias finally emerges triumphant and that the family had been waiting for the judgment for over three decades.
On 3 August, 1991, five assailants reached in a Maruti van and sprayed bullets at Awadhesh who was standing outside his house with his brother Ajay, an ex-MLA. Ajay took his injured brother to a hospital in the same van which the assailants had left behind, but Awadhesh was declared dead on arrival.
The murder was said to be the result of the prolonged rivalry between the gangs of Mukhtar and mafia Brijesh Singh as the latter was considered close to the Rai family.
Mukhtar was first convicted on 21 September, 2022 in a case lodged against him for assaulting a jailor in 2003. The next day, he was convicted in a case lodged against him under the stringent Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act in Lucknow in 1999.
In January this year, the Supreme Court had later given an interim stay on the conviction in the case related to the assault on the jailor.
Then, a Ghazipur court in 15 December last year convicted Mukhtar and his aide Bheem Singh in a Gangster Act case dating back to 1996.
On April 29, he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by an MP/MLA court in Ghazipur in connection with another Gangster Act case lodged in 2007.
The case was lodged against him and his politician brother Afzal Ansari, a BSP MP, after their details were recorded on the basis of the rioting witnessed in Varanasi in the aftermath of the Krishnanand Rai murder case of 2005 and other cases, including the murder of coal trader and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) office-bearer Nand Kishore Rungta.
Afzal lost his Lok Sabha membership soon after he was convicted in the case.
“Definitely, there were a lot of ups and downs in the case as it remained pending after the matter reached the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court multiple times but now, a verdict has finally come. The judgment has enhanced the public’s confidence in the judiciary,” Ajay’s lawyer Anuj Yadav told the mediapersons outside the court.
Yadav said there were five accused, including one unknown person, in the case.
“Two accused have died and records of some are pending in an MP/MLA court in Prayagraj, which will also see movement soon. The accused included Mukhtar Ansari, Abdul Kalam, Bheem Singh, Kamlesh Singh and Rakesh Srivatsva. A fine of Rs 20,000 has been slapped on him for the charge of armed rioting,” he said.
Mukhtar’s lawyer Akhilesh Upadhyay, meanwhile, said his client would approach the Allahabad High Court against the court order.
‘Not rarest of the rare case’
In his verdict, special MP/MLA judge Avanish Gautam noted that the defence lawyer sought minimum punishment for the accused citing his “ill health.”
“Additional district government counsel (criminal) Vinay Kumar Singh opposed the arguments of the defence side and said that the accused has a long criminal history and the brazen daylight murder of Awadhesh Rai shows that the case falls in the category of the rarest of rare case. Hence, he pleaded for maximum punishment for the accused,” the order reads.
“Charges have been proved against Mukhtar. In the Supreme Court order in the Ram Lal versus State of Haryana, 1993, the court has opined that death penalty has to be awarded only in rarest of the rare cases. In the present facts and circumstances, the case does not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases. Hence, as per the court’s view, accused Mukhtar Ansari is sentenced to the following punishment,” the judge said in his order.
Significantly, the case diary had gone missing from the court records and this was revealed when a photostated copy was produced by the Chetganj police station in-charge in the court.
Subsequently, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Cant police station in Varanasi had lodged against Mukhtar for criminal conspiracy in July last year in this connection.
Outside the court, Congress leader Ajay Rai, who is also the provincial party head of UP east region, termed the verdict as “a long awaited victory”.
“Today, with the blessings of Baba Vishwanath, we have won the 32-year-old fight which I fought with my friends, family and our lawyers… We were waiting for 32 years and you can understand what it means for me, my family and our elder brother’s daughter, all of us want to thank the judiciary. The way we fought hard and pursued the case, produced evidence, we felt that Mukhtar will get maximum punishment and that’s what the judiciary did,” he told the media.
“We fought for 32 years. The one who keeps standing against mafias, will win over them. We kept fighting even as the governments changed.”
Asked if he faced threat to life, Ajay said that while he repeatedly sought enhanced police protection from the government, he was provided with only two-three gunners.
“If there is any untoward incident, the Bharatiya Janata Party government will be responsible. The government has to see that it should provide security to a man and the family who are still standing after fighting for so long,” the Congress leader said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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