UP govt to appeal against acquittal of Mukhtar Ansari, others in Krishnanand Rai murder case

The Uttar Pradesh government shall file an appeal against the CBI court order acquitting BSP MLA and gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, his brother and MP Afzal Ansari along with five others in the 2005 murder case of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai, according to a senior state official.

"Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the judgement in the Krishnanand Rai case. The government shall examine the judgement and file appeal in the high court," Principal Secretary (Information) Awanish Awasthi said Thursday.

The court in Delhi acquitted Ansaris and others on Wednesday as all the eyewitnesses and material witnesses turned hostile.

It said had the prosecution witnesses not turned hostile, the outcome of the trial would have been different and highlighted the absence of a witness protection scheme.

The CBI court held that the investigators failed to prove the charges by not bringing enough evidence against the persons who were accused of carrying out the gruesome killing of seven persons, including Rai.

The trial was transferred from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi by the Supreme Court in 2013 on a plea filed by Alka Rai, the wife of Krishnanand Rai who was an MLA from Mohammadabad Assembly seat when he was killed on November 29, 2005, along with six others.

Mukhtar Ansari, who is MLA from Mau in Uttar Pradesh, has several criminal cases against him, including that of murder and abduction.

His brother Afzal Ansari was elected from Ghazipur constituency in the recent Lok Sabha election.

Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had directed a CBI inquiry into Rai's killing.