Uttar Pradesh: Mukhtar Ansari swindled funds, under ED lens

LUCKNOW: The Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating a case against jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari regarding income of crores of rupees through rent from illegally occupied government land, will also look into the siphoning of Rs 25 lakh under the MLA Local Area Development (MLA LAD) Fund.
The money was meant for the construction of a school in Mukhtar’s assembly constituency Mau but no work was carried out at the site. After the matter came to light, the Mau police registered a case against Mukhtar at Sarai Lakhansi police station on April 26. The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday contacted the Mau administration to seek details of the case.
During investigation, it surfaced that total amount of Rs 25 lakh was misappropriated from MLA LAD funds in 2006-07 and again in 2017-18.
Mukhtar released Rs 25 lakh to Anand Yadav and Baijnath Yadav of Sakin Sarva village for the construction of a school on gram sabha land that was illegally transferred in Baijnath’s name. However, not a single brick was laid on the site.
Sources in the ED said the agency would seek records of the land deal and also identify other beneficiaries involved in the transfer of land.
An officer privy to the probe said the case would be clubbed with money laundering case registered by ED in July.
The official said during investigation of the previous case against Mukhtar, it was found that he occupied a government land in a Mau village and earned around Rs 12 crore by fraudulently giving away the land to a private company on a rent of Rs 1.7 crore per year. He collected the rent for seven years. ED is also scrutinising 49 FIRs lodged against Mukhtar in different police stations of the state and will also look into the cases where charge sheets have been filed .