Mukhtar Ansari's wife Afshan runs his empire, generating hundreds of crores

NEW DELHI: Afshan Ansari, wife of dreaded gangster Mukhtar Ansari, is on the run. With Mukhtar and one of his MLA sons already behind bars, Afsan is now the 'most wanted' person for UP Police which is trying to demolish the crime syndicate of the notorious don, a five-time MLA from Mau.
Afshan has jumped several summons of the Enforcement Directorate. The agency's investigations have revealed that Afshan has been running the jailed don's 'empire' that has allegedly generated 'proceeds of crime' in hundreds of crores over the past three decades.Investigations have revealed that Afshan is primarily 'responsible' for laundering the "ill-gotten" money through legal entities registered for the purpose, some acquired as part of extortion from other businessmen.
According to a dossier prepared by the ED, Afshan Ansari allegedly laundered the 'proceeds of crime' of her husband through three legal entities - Vikas Construction and Ansari Construction Enterprises, both based in Ghazipur, and Glorize Land Developers Pvt Ltd, based in Lucknow. She has been a partner and director in these firms along with her two brothers, Atif Raza and Anwar Shahzad.
As the agency further probed into the involvement of her two sons Abbas and Umar, besides her two brothers Atif and Anwar, the ED's money trail found that Glorize Land Developers Pvt Ltd had never filed its annual returns. Abbas, who is a national level shooter, is in jail presently.In one case, through Vikas Construction, Afshan allegedly usurped a government land in Raini Village in Mau and constructed an illegal warehouse, rented it to Food Corporation of India and received rentals of more than Rs 10 crore. This was before the ED initiated an investigation under the Preventions of Money Laundering Act a few years ago against Mukhtar's crime syndicate.
Mukhtar, his wife and other associates today face close to 50 FIRs being investigated by UP Police and central agencies, including the ED and the Income Tax department. These cases relate to murder, extortion and land grabbing. One case registered in Lucknow related to forging of documents to take over prime land of an evacuee, Md Washim, who had migrated to Pakistan. The state government has now reversed the status of the land as 'evacuee property', besides freeing several other land and property from the don's illegal occupation.
Mukhtar Ansari comes from an illustrious family. His grandfather was a freedom fighter who went on to become the president of the Indian National Congress. The family bosts of having a Vice President of India, a brigadier in the Indian Army, vice-chancellor of central university, MPs and MLAs. His brother Afzal Ansari defeated BJP's Manoj Sinha, the present LG of J&K, from Ghazipur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. His son Abbas defeated the BJP candidate in the 2022 UP assembly elections from Mau.