Four henchmen of Mukhtar Ansari arrested in Mau

VARANASI: Four henchmen of jailed mafia-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari booked under Gangster Act for extortion in the name of taxi stands were arrested in Mau district.
Police had announced cash rewards of Rs 25,000 for each of the 11 members booked under Gangster Act on May 31.
Mau SP Anurag Arya said that Sarai Lakhansi cops on Thursday succeeded in arresting Suresh Singh of Bhiti area.Earlier on Wednesday, Kotwali cops had arrested Jhanku Singh, Samar Bahadur of Pardaha and Mahendra Chauhan of Sultanpur Banaura, he said.
These four were among those 11 booked under Gangster Act on May 13. Search for the remaining seven including the gang leader Saud Abbasi continues.
In a bid to hit the economic empire of Mukhtar, police had started identifying his henchmen. It was then when a gang led by Abbasi had come to light. This gang of 13 was busted when two of its members were arrested, and thereafter, the name of their gang leader and other 10 members were ascertained.
“On May 31 Abbasi, Surendra Singh, Shivendra Kumar Singh, Samar Bahadur, Ashwini Kumar Singh, Jhinku Singh, Mahendra Chauhan, Makhanchu Yadav, Santosh Kumar, Mandhata Shukla and Dheeraj Rai were booked under Gangster Act and cash rewards were announced on them,” said Arya.
“These 11 men had appeared on the radar of Mau cops in 2019 when three FIRs had been lodged against them at city Kotwali, Sarai Lakhansi and Dakshin Tola police stations. In the FIRs, it was alleged that they had taken contract of tax stands from Nagar Palika for financial year 2019-20, but were extorting money from people on that pretext. As many as 11 members of the gang including Suresh and Abbasi were sent to jail while contract of Rs 65.51 lakh was cancelled,” explained the SP.
“However, in November 2019, when the process of floating fresh tender was initiated by Nagar Palika, Dheeraj Rai, who also belonged to this gang, grabbed the contract by quoting the amount of Rs 75 lakh. During police investigation, the earlier allegations of extortion in the name of taxi stand was corroborated. A fresh FIR under Gangster Act was then lodged against them. Process to register their separate gangs was also initiated,” said Arya.