Ansari, who hailed from Mau, was believed to have strong influence in adjoining Ghazipur and Varanasi districts as well.
Mukhtar had been convicted in eight cases during the past two years and was serving a life sentence in Banda jail while facing trial in many other cases.
On March 13, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case of arms procurement through fake documents in 1990.
In December last year, the MP/MLA court of Varanasi had convicted Ansari for abducting and intimidating Mahavir Prasad Rungta, a key witness in the murder case of 26-year-old coal merchant Nand Kishore Rungta.
In June 2023, Mukhtar was convicted and given a life sentence for the murder of Awdhesh Rai, brother of the present UPCC chief Ajai Rai.
According to police records, Ansari had been heading gang number 191 with around 61 cases of criminal offenses lodged against him.
Despite his notorious reputation, Mukhtar had carved a noteworthy niche for himself in the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh. Of his five electoral victories, two were driven by the BSP. However, during his heyday, his reign of terror was felt across a number of eastern and central UP districts in the 1990s.
He began his political career in the mid-90s by joining the student politics of BHU and was elected MLA for the first time in 1996.
Now his son Abbas is an MLA from his constituency Mau Sadar.
