Mukhtar Ansari: The ‘Bahubali’ gangster of UP who became a politician

He suffered a cardiac arrest. His family claims he was slowly poisoned. Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district on Thursday.

Ansari was a five-time MLA from the Mau constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh. In the last two years, the 63-year-old was convicted in eight cases. A history-sheeter he had 65 cases against him in police stations across Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

The “bahubali” gangster came from an influential family. He was the relative of former vice president Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

So how did Mukhtar Ansari become a criminal? What was his political career like? And how did he meet his end? Here is his story.

A freedom fighter’s grandson

Mukhtar Ansari was born in 1960 in Uttar Pradesh’s Yusufpur into a family which contributed to India’s freedom struggle and played a significant role in the country’s political landscape after Independence.

His paternal grandfather, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, was a notable leader in the Indian National Congress and became its president in 1927. He was also associated with the Muslim League but distanced himself because of its separatist agenda. He later served as a chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, a prestigious Delhi university, until he died in 1936.

The gangster-politician’s mother also belonged to an illustrious family. His maternal grandfather, Brigadier Mohammad Usman, was a decorated officer in the Indian Army. He earned a Maha Vir Chakra posthumously after he died in the Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir during a conflict with Pakistan in 1948.

How did the apple fall far from the tree then?

Mukhtar Ansari’s tryst with the crime world

Ansari treaded on a path far different from his family. His brush with the criminal world started as early as 1978 – he was only 15. He was booked for criminal intimidation at the Saidpur Police Station in Ghazipur, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

There was no looking back then.

By the 1980s, he was entrenched in the world of crime. It all started in Purvanchal, a region in UP infamous for its criminal gangs looking to get government contracts. Soon Ansari rose to the ranks and became a known name in the contract mafia circle, which terrorised the state.

Ansari got involved in murder, armed rioting and fraud. In 1988, he was embroiled in a land dispute in Ghaziapur and was linked to a murder. This was the beginning of his rivalry with mafia Brijesh Singh. It led to gang wars and more killings.

In the early 1990s, he became a dread figure with criminal activities surfacing in Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur.

The gangster made many enemies along the way and in 2002 his convoy was ambushed. Three people died and what followed was more violence and bloodshed. Ansari was implicated in three other murders, including that of a contractor Ajay Prakash Singh, in 2009.

The gangster-politician was convicted in eight criminal cases since September 2022 and was facing trial in 21 cases in different courts. By 2005 that number had risen to 28, this included cases of murder and seven cases under the UP’s Gangster Act registered against him since 2005.

A plunge into politics

Ansari’s foray into politics started at a grassroots level around 1995 through student politics at the Benaras Hindu University. As he became the undisputed gang leader in Poorvanchal, his influence also started growing. He secured a seat as a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Mau constituency in 1996 and was elected five times.

Ansari and his brother Afzal then joined the Bahujan Samaj Party. Its supremo Mayawati portrayed Ansari as the “messiah of the poor”, a Robinhood of sorts. He contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi on a BSP ticket but lost to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Murli Manohar Joshi,

In 2009, Ansari and his brother were expelled from the BSP because of their ongoing involvement in criminal activities. He then went on to form the Quami Ekta Dal (QED).

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the gangster-politician announced that he would contest against Narendra Modi from Varanasi but he withdrew to avoid splitting secular votes. In January 2016, he once again joined the BSP and won the 2017 UP state elections as the BSP candidate from the Mau seat, according to a report in The Times of India.

His political career was also marred by accusations of communal violence and exploiting religious sentiments. Now it is his son Abbas Ansari who is following in his father’s footsteps.

Convictions and jail

Ansari’s crimes caught up with him.

He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in April 2023 for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP MLA court. He was sentenced to life in prison on 13 March 2024 in connection with a fake arms license case.

His latest sentencing was the eighth by a UP court in the last two years.

In April 2021, Ansari was shifted from Ropar prison in Punjab to UP’s Banda jail. He spent two years in the Punjab jail from January 2019 to April 2021. He was taken there in January 2019, on a transit remand after an extortion call was made to a Mohali-based builder, according to a report in The Indian Express.

The final days

On Tuesday morning, Ansari was admitted to the Banda Medical College after complaining of abdominal pain. His family has alleged that he was being poisoned .

He returned to prison on Tuesday evening after doctors said his condition improved. His brother Afzal, who met him in the hospital, told the media, that Ansari was in the ICU and he had met him for five minutes. “He is conscious. He told me that he had been given some poisonous substance in his food. And that this has happened the second time. It happened 40 days ago too,” Afzal said.

Days later, on Thursday, Ansari died of cardiac arrest. He was rushed to the hospital after he fell unconscious in jail around 8.45 pm. He died at the Rani Durgavati Medical College during the treatment.

Now his family is reiterating the charge. Ansari’s son Umar has also alleged that his father was given poison in the food and said he would approach the court. “We said this before also and even today we will say the same thing. On March 19, he was poisoned in the dinner. We will move to the judiciary, we have full faith in it…,” he said.

With inputs from agencies