Jailed Indian gangster and politician Mukhtar Ansari, who faced numerous criminal charges, including those related to murder and extortion, died on Thursday due to cardiac arrest. However, in April 2023, received a 10-year prison sentence for the murder of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai and was lodged at Banda district jail. Who was Krishnanand Rai Krishnanand Rai was a powerful leader who defeated Afzal on the BJP ticket in the 2002 assembly elections from the Mohammadabad seat which was dominated by Mukhtar Ansari and Afzal Ansari. For the first time in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, he had given such a challenge to the Ansari brothers in the political arena due to which he saw his political existence in danger. But who knew that this electoral rivalry would become the reason for the brutal murder of Krishnanand Rai.Brutal murder of Krishnanand RaiOn November 29, 2005, Mukhtar Ansari gang had killed 7 people including BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in a hail of gunfire of about 500 rounds by Ansaris shooter, Munna Bajrangi. The entire India was shocked by this sensational murder. After the assassination, former Chief Minister Rajnath Singh (current Defense Minister) sat on a strike in Varanasi.BJP leaders demanded CBI probeAfter the murder of Krishnanand, there was a lot of anger among BJP leaders. Top BJP leaders including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani demanded a CBI inquiry into this matter, but initially it was refused. Later it was asked to transfer it to CBCID, but after six months it also left the case.Hurt by this, Krishnanand Rais wife filed a writ in Allahabad High Court demanding a CBI investigation. In May 2006, on the petition of Alka Rai, the High Court had ordered a CBI investigation. Delhis CBI court had given its verdict on July 3, 2019, acquitting all the eight accused including former Ghazipur BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari, Munna Bajrangi, Rafiq and five others.
