Mukhtar Ansari gets life sentence in 36-year-old fake arms license case

Mukhtar Ansari, a jailed mafia don-turned-politician, has been sentenced life imprisonment by the court of Special Judge (MP/MLA) in Varanasi. The charges against him include cheating, forgery of documents, criminal conspiracy, and violating the Arms Act to obtain a double-barrel gun licence in 1986. The court will announce the sentence on Wednesday. This marks Ansari's eighth conviction since September 2022.

Explaining the judgment, Vinay Singh, the additional district government counsel (criminal), said that Special Judge (MP/MLA) Avnish Gautam found Ansari guilty under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468, 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 30 of the Arms Act. However, Ansari was acquitted under section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Singh added that Ansari appeared via videoconferencing from Banda jail. The potential punishment can range up to life imprisonment. Ansari obtained a double-barrel gun license in 1986 by forging the signatures of the then-Ghazipur district magistrate and superintendent of police.


The facts came to light in 1990, leading to an FIR against Ansari in Ghazipur. The investigation was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI chargesheet named Ansari and the then arms clerk, Gauri Shankar Lal. Since the charges included a section of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the trial was held before the court of the additional district judge (anti-corruption) and special judge (MP/MLA) of Varanasi. During the trial, the prosecution examined ten witnesses, including the former district magistrate and superintendent of police, former officials, CBI officers, and forensic experts.

Mukhtar Ansari is currently lodged in Banda jail, facing a total of 61 criminal cases. On December 15 last year, the MP/MLA court in Varanasi had sentenced Ansari to five-and-a-half years of imprisonment in a case related to threatening a witness in VHP treasurer’s kidnapping case in 1997. On April 29, 2023, Mukhtar was awarded 10 years in jail in a Gangsters Act case while his brother and co-accused, Afzal Ansari, was also given four-year imprisonment after which he lost his Lok Sabha membership.

However, on December 14, the Supreme Court suspended Afzal’s sentence, allowing him to return to Parliament. Earlier, on September 21, 2022, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court had sentenced Mukhtar to seven years in jail for threatening a jailer and pointing a pistol at him. On September 23, 2022, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC sentenced the former MLA to five years imprisonment under a Gangsters Act.

On December 15, 2022, Mukhtar and his close aide Bhim Singh were awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment in another Gangsters Act case lodged against them in 1996, by the MP-MLA court of Ghazipur. On April 29, Mukhtar and his brother Afzal Ansari were awarded 10 years and four years in jail, respectively, in a Gangsters Act case, in which they had been booked in 2007, after the killing of Krishnanand Rai. On October 27, 2022, he was awarded 10 years imprisonment by MPMLA court of Ghazipur in a 2009 Gangsters Act case.