Gangster turned MLA Mukhtar Ansari was yesterday checked out from Punjab’s Central Jail in Ropar to be transferred to Uttar Pradesh’s Banda Jail where he reached early this morning, completing the 900-km journey amidst an army of the police force, without any major hiccup. The transfer of Ansari to the UP jail also brings a fitting end to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s vow which he had taken some 16 summers ago to punish Ansari for his crimes.
In 2005, when the Mau communal riots broke out, Mukhtar Ansari, accused of igniting flames of anarchy during the riots was allegedly roaming in an open jeep and egging the rioters to go on a rampage. At the time, Yogi Adityanath used to be an MP from the Gorakhpur seat. Anguished by the pain of the riots, Yogi had vowed that he will bring justice to the Mau riot victims.
A year later in 2006, CM Yogi Adityanath, along with his convoy set forth towards Mau but with Mukhtar Ansari close to the power corridors of UP government, and BJP not yet having a decent ground in centre or state, Yogi’s cavalcade was stopped midway in Dohrighat, apparently at the behest of Ansari.
Three years after the riots at Mau, Yogi once again trained his guns on Ansari and challenged him by pairing up with Hind Yuva Vahini and announcing that he will be leading a rally against ‘terrorism’ in Azamgarh.
On September 7, 2008, the rally was organised in the DAV Degree College ground and Yogi along with his cavalcade of 40 vehicles pushed from Gorakhpur. Surrounded by a sea of motorcyclists and other supporters, Yogi was sitting in the middle of the motorcade in a red SUV. However, a stone flung straight into the windshield of Yogi’s car and it was evident that his march had once again been sabotaged. Yogi at the time had claimed that gun rounds were fired, stones were thrown their way but the UP police remained mum. It was insinuated that Ansari was behind the entire chain of events, but it could never be proved.
The then MP once again remarked that he will take this fight to its fruition and those firing the bullets will be made answerable. And now, acting on a Supreme Court order, the Uttar Pradesh Police under Yogi Adityanath has finally taken custody of the 57-year-old BSP legislator.
The UP government really went after Ansari with all its might in the Supreme Court. The Yogi administration had alleged that the Congress Punjab government was “shamelessly protecting” the legislator by not handing over his custody to face trial “in 10 heinous cases of murder, extortion, cheating, fraud” and “gangster acts” in the special court for MPs and MLAs in Allahabad.
However, on March 26, the top court directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of Ansari to the Uttar Pradesh police, saying it was being denied on trivial grounds under the guise of medical issues.
The Yogi Adityanath government is destroying Ansari’s illegal empire at a menacing pace as alleged illegal properties worth crores of rupees related to the mafia don in Lucknow, Mau and Ghazipur have been demolished by the state agencies. Earlier in July, the Ghazipur district administration had demolished a godown, built illegally on public land.
The police also seized properties worth Rs 58.91 lakh of Mukhtar Ansari’s shooter Brijesh Sonkar and arrested seven accomplices of his. Also, properties worth Rs. 39.80 crore has been freed from illegal possession of Ansari’s relatives and 33 weapons have been deposited in different jails so far after their licenses had been suspended.
With Ansari lodged in Yogi’s backyard now, the state CM is expected to make sure the criminal don answers to his long, illustrious history of crimes which he managed to evade for so long, courtesy of the corrupt bureaucracy and the hand of few political masters. Yogi’s vengeance has come a full circle and Ansari will have to pay the price for it. Given the multiple cases of murder and many other crimes against him, he would either get a lifetime jail sentence or hanged.