Mukhtar Ansari, born into an influential family in 1963, straddled the worlds of crime and politics in Uttar Pradesh. Mukhtar Ansari, who was accused in 63 criminal cases including 14 of murder and was convicted and sentenced in eight of these since September 2022, died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in Banda on Thursday.

Mukhtar Ansari, 63, was brought to the Rani Durgawati Medical College from the Banda prison for a second time in a week shortly before he was declared dead.

Mukhtar Ansari hailed from a distinguished lineage deeply rooted in India’s struggle for independence. His paternal grandfather, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, was a notable leader in the Indian National Congress, becoming its president in 1927 and later, serving as Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia until his death in 1936.

On the maternal side, Brigadier Mohammad Usman, Mukhtar Ansari’s grandfather, was a decorated officer in the Indian Army. He died in the Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir during a conflict with Pakistan in 1948, earning the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously.

The gangster-turned-politician, who had been elected as MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Mau five times on the tickets of different political parties, had entered the world of crime to establish himself and his gang in the government contract mafia that was then flourishing in the state.

Mukhtar Ansari: 10 facts about his world of crime

1. Mukhtar Ansari’s tryst with crime began as early as 1978 when he was just 15 years of age. Ansari had his first brush with the law when he was booked for criminal intimidation at Saidpur Police Station of Ghazipur.

2. By 1986, Mukhtar Ansari had become a well-known face in the contract mafia circle. That year, another case of murder was lodged against him at Muhammad Police Station of Ghazipur.

3. Over the next decade, Mukhtar Ansari became a common face of crime with at least 14 more cases under serious charges lodged against him.

4. Mukhtar Ansari had 28 criminal cases, including that of murder, and seven cases under the UP’s Gangster Act registered against him since 2005.

5. The gangster-politician had been convicted in eight criminal cases since September 2022 and had been facing trial in 21 cases in different courts.

5. Mukhtar Ansari was awarded life term and a penalty of ₹2.02 lakh by Varanasi MP/MLA earlier this month in a case of fraudulently obtaining an arms licence around 37 years ago. This was the eighth case in which he was sentenced in the past 18 months by different courts of UP and the second in which he was awarded a life term.

6. On December 15, 2023, a Varanasi MP/MLA court sentenced Mukhtar Ansari to five years and six months for giving a death threat to Mahavir Prasad Rungta for turning hostile and not pursuing a case involving the kidnapping and murder of BJP leader and coal trader Nand Kishore Rungta on January 22, 1997.

7. On October 27, 2023, a Ghazipur MP/MLA court awarded Mukhtar Ansari 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of ₹5 lakh in a Gangster Act case lodged against him in 2010.

8. On June 5, 2023, a Varanasi MP/MLA awarded life imprisonment to Mukhtar Ansari in the case of the murder of Awadesh Rai, the elder brother of former Congress MLA and present UP Congress president Ajay Rai. Awadesh Rai was sprayed with bullets when he and his brother Ajay were standing outside their house in the Lahurabir locality of Varanasi on August 3, 1991.

9. Among the most high profile of these cases were the murders of the then sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005. On April 29, 2023, Ghazipur MP/MLA court had sentenced Ansari to 10 years of imprisonment in the case.

10. Since 2020, Ansari gang had been under intense heat from Uttar Pradesh Police, which either seized or demolished illegal property worth ₹608 crore belonging to the gang.

Mukhtar Ansari’s political career

Mukhtar Ansari was elected MLA from the Mau assembly constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh five times from 1996 to 2022, twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, twice as an Independent and once as a Quami Ekta Dal nominee.

In 2022, Mukhtar Ansari passed on the baton to his elder son Abbas Ansari, who won from the same assembly seat as a candidate of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party in 2022, which was then in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.