A gangster convicted in eight cases, including one of murder, he was a “mafia don” to many, while for others, he was a “messiah of the poor”. As he turned to politics, Mukhtar built a “Robin Hood-like image” in Ghazipur and Mau.
While his father Qazi Subhanullah was a Communist Party of India (CPI) leader who was chosen as the chairman of the Ghazipur municipality, former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari is also from the same clan.
According to Mukhtar’s family, former Congress president Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was his paternal grandfather and Mahavir Chakra awardee Brigadier Usman his maternal grandfather. However, Mahmud Ansari’s book Ansaris of Yusufpur, which traces the family tree, says both were distantly related to his father Subhanullah.
The jailed gangster-politician, whose family levelled allegations of him being poisoned in prison, died on 28 March at a medical college in Banda. The medical college has attributed his death to a “cardiac arrest”.
As thousands turned up to offer condolences and catch a last glimpse of the don Saturday at the Kalibagh cemetery, emotions ran high in Mohammadabad.
ThePrint looks at the journey of the mafia don who ran an empire of terror for decades.
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Mafia don or Robin Hood?
Superintendent of Police (Vigilance), Lucknow, Aravind Chaturvedi, who previously served as member of the Special Task Force (STF) in Ghazipur, recounted that like several politicians in the 1980s and 1990s, Mukhtar turned to politics and built a “Robin Hood-like” image in Ghazipur and Mau.
“Even while in jail, Mukhtar would hold a darbar regularly which people of his area would visit seeking financial aid and help for getting their work done. Unlike other gangsters, Mukhtar had a charisma of sorts and would go out of the way to please his supporters. This was a tactic to garner support,” Chaturvedi told ThePrint.
For some politicians and Purvanchalis (residents of eastern UP), Mukhtar was a “messiah of the poor”.
Dhananjay Singh, a local resident, spoke of Mukhtar’s “unwavering support” for the needy. “He was always there to help the downtrodden and there were several who benefited from his help,” he told ThePrint.
Political figures like former UP minister of state Yasar Shah and cabinet minister O.P. Rajbhar echoed this sentiment — painting Mukhtar as a “revolutionary”, a “champion for the oppressed”.
In a post on X, Shah wrote that when he got to know Mukhtar closely after becoming an MLA from Matera, he realised that the man, termed as a mafia by people, continued to fight big people for the rights of poor, oppressed, Dalits and backwards.
“Today, they have lost their support,” he wrote.
विधान सभा जाने से पहले कभी किसी माफिया डॉन से मुलाक़ात सामने सामने नहीं हुई थी और 2012 में जब विधायक बने तो प्रदेश के सारे माफिया एक साथ एक ही जगह मिल गये विधान सभा में।
दो सवा छह फुट लंबे विधायक और उनके अग़ल बग़ल तमाम नामचीन माफिया डॉन “मुख़्तार भाई, मुख़्तार भाई” कर रहे थे और… pic.twitter.com/knUueHvc1p— Yasar Shah (@yasarshah_SP) March 28, 2024
On Saturday, Rajbhar called Mukhtar a “messiah of the poor and a revolutionary”.
Political journey
Mukhtar was elected an MLA from Mau five times throughout his political journey — initially representing the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), then serving two terms as an Independent from 2002 to 2012, followed by a win under the banner of his own party, the Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED), in 2012, and finally returning to the BSP fold ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.
While the BSP was accused of giving him patronage, Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party (SP) too dallied with the gangster and the QED formed by the Ansari brothers.
In 2010, when mobiles and “objectionable material” were recovered from his cell in the Ghazipur jail under the Mayawati government, the BSP expelled him. It is following this that the Ansari brothers floated the QED.
In June 2016, Mukhtar hobnobbed with Mulayam Singh and formally merged his party into the SP, despite opposition from the former CM’s son, Akhilesh Yadav.
However, as the merger triggered turmoil within the SP, Mukhtar returned to Mayawati in January 2017, who merged QED with BSP and famously termed Akhilesh as “anti-Muslim,” claiming that Mukhtar had been “framed in false cases”.
The extent of the political patronage enjoyed by Mukhtar can be gauged from the fact that he stayed in a Mohali jail in Congress-ruled Punjab between January 2019 and April 2021, till the Supreme Court chided Punjab for retaining him, said Ashok Singh, brother of contractor Manna Singh, who was allegedly killed at Mukhtar’s behest in 2009.
Mukhtar was subsequently brought to UP after the state government approached the SC to bring him back and lodged in a “tanhai (solitary)” barrack in the Banda jail.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior police officer said that when Mukhtar was lodged in the UP jail, he would hold a darbar in the jail every day, except Saturdays, when his wife would visit him without any hindrance and her car would straight away stop near his barrack.
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Encounter with crime
Born to a politician father, Mukhtar was an emerging athlete in the Ghazipur Government PG College. According to America Singh Yadav, a CPI leader from Ghazipur, he was also good at cricket and shooting.
When he was just 15 years old, he was booked for criminal intimidation in 1978. However, his name did not appear in UP Police records till 1986 when he befriended Sadhu Singh — a shooter of UP’s first ‘don-neta’ Hari Shankar Tiwari.
UP police officers who have dealt with Mukhtar recounted how he started as a “dabangg”, hobnobbing with local gangsters like Makhnu Singh and Sadhu Singh, brothers who were engaged in extortion and killings.
“Mukhtar was active in student politics and was in touch with Maniram Singh, who was a relative of former PM Chandra Shekhar’s wife. Maniram introduced him to Rudal Singh, a block head who introduced him to Sadhu and Makhnu Singh,” a Ghazipur BJP leader told ThePrint.
After Makhnu was killed in 1985 by Tribhuvan Singh and Ranjit Singh, who had the support of Purvanchal don Virendra Shahi, Sadhu wanted to avenge his brother’s murder.
“Mohammadabad was dominated by Bhumihars who were well-off, arrogant and oppressive towards other communities, including Yadavs, Muslims, Chamars and even Thakurs, who were all oppressed by the land-owning Bhumihars. While Mukhtar and his elder brother Afzal Ansari were not financially weak initially, there was a time when they had to work at a cinema hall and a cycle stand, respectively, to make money,” the CPI leader Yadav, quoted earlier, said.
While several families across communities were troubled by the dominant Bhumihars, even the influential Ansari family could not escape their insults, he added.
“In 1986, Afzal Ansari was already a first-time MLA. However, the local strongman Sachidanand Rai once held his collar in public, which led to the brothers taking it as an insult,” Yadav told ThePrint.
The BJP leader quoted earlier said that while Sachidanand Rai’s act hurt both Afzal and Mukhtar, the latter took it as an offence and decided to avenge the insult.
Mukhtar allegedly killed Sachidanand Rai on 17 July 1986 — an incident that marked his official entry into the world of crime in Purvanchal as he became a member of the Sadhu Singh gang.
Mukhtar’s crime empire
After gangster Tribhuvan Singh and his associates Brijesh Singh and Saheb Singh allegedly murdered Sadhu Singh in November 1989, Mukhtar overtook the gang — marking the beginning of an empire of terror that gradually extended to UP, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, among other states.
UP police officers who have interrogated Mukhtar said that he was a street-smart criminal who knew how to exact revenge.
According to SP Chaturvedi, Mukhtar expanded his network by harbouring small-time criminals from different castes and communities. “He gave refuge to small-time criminals, obliging them with money protection from police and rivals,” he added.
Mukhtar gradually established an organised gang that demanded a cut from contractors and established its hold over coal mining, railway contracts, scrap disposal and gradually liquor business, in areas like Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli and even Bihar.
Mukhtar-Brijesh Singh rivalry & Usri Chatti case
While both Mukhtar and Brijesh Singh knew how to guard their territories, they were not enemies from the beginning. Brijesh was controlling the contract business in Purvanchal when Mukhtar was growing.
The most popular rivalry of the Hindi heartland emerged from a series of murders that forced Brijesh to leave UP and go “underground” only to return decades later, recounted UP police officers.
The murder of strongman Awadhesh Rai, brother of current UP Congress chief Ajay Rai, in August 1991, was one such flashpoint.
As Mukhtar established his control over the Chandausi coal mandi and sought a cut from traders, Awadhesh became his hindrance.
Awadhesh, who enjoyed political protection, had his influence in east UP’s contract business and allegedly humiliated Mukhtar once.
In August 1991, when Awadhesh and Ajay were about to enter their home in Varanasi’s Maldia, some assailants reportedly arrived in a car and opened fire on Awadhesh. According to media reports, as Ajay retaliated and opened fire, the assailants fled the spot, leaving the car behind, which eventually established Mukhtar’s involvement in the case.
The other killings that were linked to Mukhtar were that of political rival Vishwanath Ram Munib and coal tycoon and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) office bearer Nand Kishore Rungta.
In November 1993, Dalit politician Munib, a BSP candidate from Mau in 1993, was killed 12 hours before polling was set to begin, while the kidnapping and murder of Rungta in January 1997 sent shockwaves through UP.
Rungta, whose body is yet to be recovered, was allegedly kidnapped by Mukhtar’s relative Ataur Rehman and later killed by the gang.
“As attacks on his associates increased, a rattled Brijesh decided to eliminate Mukhtar and allegedly conspired to kill his archrival in what is the infamous Usri Chatti case,” a UP STF officer said.
The case is from July 2001, when gunmen attacked the convoy of Mukhtar, then Mau MLA, when it was passing through the Usri Chatti area on the Yusufpur-Kasimabad road. Brijesh Singh and his friend Tribhuvan Singh are among the accused in the case, which is in the last stages of hearing.
Speaking to mediapersons after meeting Mukhtar on 26 March, his elder brother Afzal Ansari told mediapersons that several attempts were being made to kill Mukhtar inside jail so that he could not testify against Brijesh Singh in the case.
He alleged that days before he could testify, he was poisoned twice, adding it was done so that Brijesh, who has been linked to the BJP, “is saved”.
In June 2023, the Allahabad High Court had transferred the case from a Ghazipur MP/MLA court to Lucknow MP/MLA court, which is currently hearing the matter.
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The downfall
While Mukhtar had been in and out of jail several times, it was the murder of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai, which pressured UP politicians to go tough on him.
Krishnanand Rai, who had dislodged Mukhtar’s brother Afzal as the sitting Mohammadabad MLA in 2002, was a Bhumihar strongman whose win from the ganglord’s stronghold was seen by Mukhtar as a challenge to his “supremacy”.
On November 29, 2005, Krishnanand Rai, who had been warned by the STF of a possible attack, had left his bulletproof vehicle and security guards at home for a wedding, the venue of which was not far from his residence.
Krishnanand’s SUV was ambushed at a narrow bridge in Ghazipur’s Bhawarkol where he was going to inaugurate a cricket tournament. The assailants, including Munna Bajrangi, used weapons like AK-47 and fired around 400 bullets on his cavalcade — 21 of which were recovered from Krishnanand’s body alone, according to media reports.
In a purported audio recording between Mukhtar and his former associate Abhay Singh which was intercepted by the STF, Mukhtar is allegedly heard sharing the news of the attack with Singh.
समय देखिये जो “अभय सिंह” कभी “मुख्तार अंसारी” का शूटर था।
“कृष्णानंद राय” हत्याकांड में भी आरोपी था
वो आज भाजपाइयों का मसीहा है ‘Y श्रेणी’ की सुरक्षा में है। pic.twitter.com/g42S12TC7X— Mayank Yadav (@MayankYadavAdv) March 29, 2024
Krishananand’s son Piyush Rai confirmed to ThePrint the incident and said that his father had become a political challenge for Mukhtar’s family.
As the murder shook Purvanchal, what forced political parties, especially the BJP, to act in the case was the public’s refusal to allow former CM Rajnath Singh to reach the crime spot, following which Singh sat on a protest.
“It led to a lot of anger against the government, which started tightening the noose around Mukhtar between 2005 and 2009,” recounted SP Chaturvedi.
Mukhtar was arrested in connection with a murder case in the wake of the Mau riots in 2005 and could not exit the jail since, except twice on parole.
Meanwhile, the 2009 murder of an ‘A-listed’ contractor Manna Singh suggested that Mukhtar was running his empire from behind bars.
Manna Singh and his accomplice Rajesh Rai, were shot dead in broad daylight in Mau’s Narai Bandh area, in which Mukhtar and 10 others were named as accused.
According to Ashok Singh, whose brother was allegedly killed at Mukhtar’s behest, while several parties gave him political patronage, Mayawati was the first to “nurture Mukhtar”.
“In 1995, when Mukhtar was in jail, he got bail, and hours later then CM Mayawati gave him security and also announced his candidature at a rally,” he claimed.
Former UP Director General of Police (DGP) Vikram Singh also told ThePrint that political patronage was one of the main reasons why Mukhtar’s reign of terror continued for decades, even from inside jail.
Cases and convictions
While as many as 65 cases were lodged against him in 63 years, Mukhtar was acquitted in several of them and was convicted only eight times. He was first convicted in September 2022 in a case for allegedly threatening a jailor of Lucknow jail where he was lodged in 2003.
The same year, he was convicted for using fake documents to re-register a Barabanki-registered ambulance that was used to ferry him from the jail to a Punjab court.
In June 2023, he got life imprisonment in the Awadhesh Rai murder case.
Months later, a Varanasi court convicted him in a case lodged against him by Rungta’s brother and a witness, Mahavir Prasad, who alleged that the don had threatened him.
Last month, Mukhtar was convicted in a 34-year-old case lodged against him for allegedly forging the signatures of the then district magistrate (DM) and superintendent of police (SP) of Ghazipur to obtain an arms licence for a double-barreled gun.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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