Mukhtar booked for seeking witness's photo during hearing

Lucknow, July 14 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged a fresh case against gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari for allegedly issuing life threat to a witness who turned against him and gave a statement before an Azamgarh court during his virtual hearing in a 2014 case from the Banda jail earlier this week.The FIR under Indian Penal Code section 506 (criminal intimidation) was lodged on Thursday evening against Ansari at city Kotwali police station in Azamgarh.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) (Azamgarh city), Shailendra Lal said the complaint was lodged on the application of a Mau resident Ashok Kumar Singh, the brother of contractor Manna Singh, one of the victims of Ansari.

Manna Singh and his accomplice Rajesh Rai were shot dead in broad daylight under Mau city kotwali limits on August 29, 2009.

Ansari and 10 others were named in the incident but a Mau court had acquitted nine people, including the gangster-turned-politician, while holding three others guilty in the case around six years ago.

The complainant Ashok Singh said that another case was related to the indiscriminate firing that took place at a construction site under Tarwa police station limits in Azamgarh in January 2014.

He said one labourer was killed while another was injured in the firing. In the incident, Ansari and his aides were the accused.

The trial of this case was going in the MP/MLA court of Azamgarh on Monday when he (Ansari) allegedly issued a threat to one of the key witnesses of the case, he added.

He claimed the witness was one Vishwajeet Singh who was giving his statement during the hearing of the case. He alleged that Ansari appeared before the court through videoconferencing from Banda jail.

“During the hearing, Ansari asked the name of the witness from his lawyer and said ‘Jara inki photo bhijwa dijiyega’ (Send his photograph to me). It was a deliberate attempt to threaten the witness that he will be eliminated as he dared to give statement against him,” alleged Ashok Singh.

“I then informed Azamgarh SP Anurag Arya about it over phone after which an FIR was lodged against Ansari,” he said.

On May 20 this year, an FIR was lodged against Ansari at Banda city kotwali for alleged discrepancies in his date of birth on different identity cards. These ID cards were recovered from him during a surprise check at the Banda jail by local authorities.

Ansari, who has been in different jails for the last 18 years, is lodged in Banda prison.
He has been in Banda jail for the past two years when he was brought back to Uttar Pradesh in April 2021 from Punjab’s Ropar jail where he remained lodged for nearly 27 months.
--IANS

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