UP gangster Mukhtar Ansari, aide get 10 years in jail for murder, attempt to murder

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 15 : Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and his aide Bhim Singh were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment by the Gangster Court in Ghazipur in five cases related to murder and attempt to murder on Thursday.
The cases include the murder of constable Raghuvansh Singh and a murderous assault on an additional SP of Ghazipur among others.
The verdict was passed by the judge following the conclusion of the argument a few days ago in which the court found Ansari and his associate guilty.
According to an official statement, Ansari has received a sentence for the third time in the past three months.
"The UP Police is aggressively pursuing cases against gangsters in courts and is also providing protection to the witnesses who receive threats of any kind," the statement said.
Ansari has been lodged in a jail at Banda in Uttar Pradesh for the last few years, and ED is interrogating him by taking him on remand for 10 days.
"A total of 59 cases are registered against Mukhtar Ansari, out of which 20 cases are pending in the court while Ansari has been sentenced for the third time in the last three months," the statement said.
Earlier on September 21, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court convicted Mukhtar Ansari and sentenced him for threatening jailer SK Awasthi and pointing a pistol at him. The case dates to 2003 when Lucknow district prison jailer SK Awasthi lodged an FIR saying that he was threatened for ordering a search of the people who came to meet Ansari in prison.
On September 23, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court sentenced him to five years in a case registered in 1999 under the Gangster Act. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Mukhtar in this 23-year-old case.