Varanasi, Sep 13 (IANS): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA and mafia don, Mukhtar Ansari, who has been in the line of fire of the Yogi Adityanath government for the past four months, suffered another jolt when the Ghazipur Police booked his wife Afsha Ansari, her brothers -- Sharjil Raja and Anwar Shehjad under the Gangster Act.

They have been booked for their involvement in grabbing confiscated lands, embezzlement and other criminal activities.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Ghazipur, O. P. Singh, said, "In the cases of illegal trespass and embezzlement registered in 2019 against Mukhtar's wife and her brothers, police had filed chargesheets. On the basis of the same, the action of booking them under the Gangster Act has been initiated on Saturday and further process is being followed."

He further said "Afsha and her brothers are operating like an organised gang. They had captured a land, confiscated on the order of district magistrate in the Chhavani Line area under the limits of the Kotwali police station. Another confiscated land in the Baveri area under the Kotwali police station had also been captured by them. To grab government contracts, Sharjil and Anwar had furnished fake documents. Separate FIR had been lodged in these three cases."

Another case of embezzlement and other criminal activities had been registered against Afsha with Saidpur police station in 2016, said Singh. He said that in view of these cases, process to put a check on their organised criminal activities had been initiated and they were booked under the Gangster Act.

Illegal property worth hundreds of crores of rupees have either been confiscated or demolished by the state government in recent weeks.

A senior police officer said, "The idea was to break the economic backbone of the mafia and we have done it in cases of both, Mukhtar Ansari and also Ateeq Ahmad, who are among the biggest dons in the state.

Mukhtar Ansari is presently lodged in Ropar jail in Punjab whole Ateeq Ahmad is in Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad.