“Feels like Holi”: Ansari murdered the widow of a UP MLA in 2005

VARANASI: The widow of BJP MLA for Uttar Pradesh Krishnanand Rai called the death of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who had murdered her husband in 2005, a “blessing” from God.
On Thursday, Ansari, sixty-three, passed away at Banda prison after a heart arrest. “Baba (Lord Shiva) has blessed Ansari’s death. Justice was something we always prayed to Baba for, and we got it.

We haven’t celebrated Holi since the event, but after worshipping at the Shri Kashi Vishwanath temple on Friday, Alka Rai remarked, “Today feels like Holi for us.”
In April 2023, Ansari was found guilty and given a 10-year term by an MP/MLA court for the murder of Rai. In November 2005, Rai and six other people were shot and killed in Ghazipur while on their way home after the opening of a cricket tournament.

Police in Varanasi started monitoring the area to keep the peace after Ansari passed away late on Thursday. The city’s Friday prayers went ahead without a hitch.
Ansari, a five-time Mau MLA, has been imprisoned in many Punjabi and Uttar Pradesh prisons since 2005. Out of the 65 charges he was facing, eight resulted in a conviction. There were 21 outstanding cases as of March 2024. Ansari was given a life sentence on March 13 of this month for using falsified paperwork to get a weapons licence in 1990.

He was given a life sentence in June 2023 by an MP/MLA court in Varanasi for the murder of Awadhesh Rai, the brother of UP Congress president Ajay Rai.
He was given a 10-year prison term and a fine by an MP/MLA court in October 2023 for his role in 2009 teacher Kapil Dev Singh’s murder. His assets totaling more than Rs 73.43 lakh were attached by the ED in the same month as part of a money-laundering probe.

He and one of his friends were found guilty in a 26-year-old Gangster Act case by a Ghazipur court in December of 2022. Prior to that, he was found guilty in two other instances by the Allahabad High Court in September 2022. In 2003, one instance included threatening a jailer; in 1999, there was another.