Mukhtar aide’s property worth Rs 8 crore seized

Varanasi: Continuing the crackdown on organised crime with jailed mafia don and having MLA Mukhtar Ansari’s gang in its crosshairs, UP police seized movable and immovable properties worth over Rs 8 crore of Ansari’s aide Paras Sonkar operating as fish trade mafia in Mau.
Police also got Mukhtar’s another accomplice Ankur Rai enlisted as land mafia on Saturday.
ADG Varanasi zone Brij Bhushan said the Mau administration and police seized seven plots of Sonkar in Jamalpur and Validpur area worth Rs 6.95 crore and 13 goods carriers, SUVs and two-wheeler worth Rs 1.22 crore under section 14(1) of Gangster Act.
Sonkar was arrested on June 20 with two others Mohd Ismail and Chhotai Sonkar with a truck carrying 10.6 tonne of fish worth Rs 12 lakhs in Mohammadabad area of Mau and booked under Sections 188, 269 of IPC and sections of Epidemic Diseases Act, Food Safety and Standards Act and Environment Protection Act.
Mau SP Anurag Arya said the money Sonkar earned from illegal fish trade was used by Mukhtar gang. Sonkar was booked under Gangster Act on June 29.
Besides, Ankur Rai, a gangster currently lodged in jail and an associate of Mukhtar, was enlisted as land mafia after revenue department submitted a report to district magistrate Gyan Prakash Tripathi confirming that he had grabbed government land in Chakra village and was running a gymnasium on it.
Earlier, Jaunpur administration and police had confiscated movable and immovable properties of Mukhtar-backed fish trade mafia Ravindra Kumar Nishad worth Rs 3.7 crore on July 10. On July 17, police seized Nishad’s one more house worth Rs 95 lakhs and an SUV.
Police officials have also been taking strict action against Mukhtar’s relatives and henchmen by cancelling and suspending their arms licences and seizing the weapons. So far, 47 arms licences of Mukhtar’s associates have been suspended in Ghazipur district. Ghazipur officials have also freed land and other properties worth over Rs 39 crore grabbed by close associates of Mukhtar, who is currently lodged in Ropar jail in Punjab.