NEW DELH, Apr 29: After the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Bahujan Samaj Party Member of the Lok Sabha Afzal Ansari is now set to lose his seat after the court on Saturday convicted him and sentenced him to four years imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of a BJP member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Krishnanand Rai in 2005.
He was convicted hours after his brother and gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail in the same case.
The MP MLA court also imposed a fine of ₹ 5 lakh on Mukhtar Ansari and ₹ 1 lakh on Afzal Ansari. The brothers were accused in kidnapping and murder Krishnanand Rai in Ghazipur in 2005.
With the conviction, Afzal Ansari is set to lose his Lok Sabha membership as Parliament rules say any member sentenced to two years or more in prison is automatically disqualified. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently lost his MP status according to the same rule after he was convicted in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced to two years in jail.
Earlier in the day, the wife of Krishnanand Rai said the rule of the mafia has ended in Uttar Pradesh and that she has faith in the judiciary. “I believe in the judiciary. Rule of Goondas, Mafias have ended (in the state),” Alka Rai said.
The Ghazipur district police on Friday had attached a property worth ₹ 12.5 crore of Afzal Ansari in Lucknow under the Gangsters Act. “A house registered in the name of Afzal Ansari and his wife located in the Dalibagh area of Lucknow worth ₹ 12.5 crore was attached under provisions of the Gangster Act. The action is part of ongoing operations against Mukhtar Ansari and his gang,” Superintendent of Police of Ghazipur Rohan P Botre said.
According to the police, the house was constructed using money earned from criminal activities. Police officials from Ghazipur reached the Dalibagh area in Lucknow to attach the property. “In the past few months properties worth over ₹ 70 crore of Mukhtar Ansari and his gang members have been attached in various districts of the state. The action will continue in future,” the police officer said.
(Manas Dasgupta)