UP: Mafia Mukhtar Ansari’s empire crushed by crackdown

LUCKNOW: Eastern UP don Mukhtar Ansari’s three-decades-old mafia empire straddling Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur and Lucknow is crumbling with massive dents to his wealth and armoury with Thursday’s demolition of family property in the state capital being the last straw.
Ansari’s gang registered as Intra-State Gang No. 191 in police records has been facing the heat from police and district administrations since last three months in line with chief minister’s zero tolerance to crime. Property worth Rs 66 crore of the don and his family have been confiscated till date.
“There has been extensive crackdown on the economic empire of Ansari and other gangsters too are under the scanner,” said additional director general of police, law and order, Prashant Kumar.
Kumar also said, 74 gun licences held by the don’s family members and henchmen have been cancelled, 47 suspended and an inquiry into others is underway.
A slaughter house operating by Ansari’s henchmen in Mau has been shut down and 28 members arrested. Similarly, Rs 4.5crore extortion racket from illegal parking business of two and four-wheelers was busted by Mau police and 13 gang members were arrested. In July, the don’s illegal fish trade was stopped and property of Rs 13 crore seized.
Police also unleashed intensive crackdowns in Azamgarh, where government land of Rs 65 lakh was freed from encroachment by the Ansari gang. Likewise in Lucknow, property of Ansari’s aide, Jugnu Walia, worth Rs 2.3 crore has also been confiscated.
Ansari’s sharp-shooter Harikesh Yadav was killed in an encounter while Rs 7crore property of coal mafia, Umesh Singh, considered close to the don has been confiscated in Mau.