Varanasi’s MP-MLA court on Monday awar-ded life sentence to gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the murder of a Congress leader’s brother 32 years ago. Awadhesh Rai, the brother of Congress’s Ajay Rai, was shot dead on August 3, 1991, at the gate of his residence in Varanasi. A case was registered against Ansari and others.

Ajay is now a regional chief of his party’s Uttar Pradesh unit. Welcoming the verdict, he said, “This is the end of our 32-year struggle against a notorious criminal. My parents, I, Awadhesh’s daughter and the whole family kept patience... Governments came and went and Mukhtar strengthened himself. But we did not give up.  Because of our lawyers’ efforts, today the court has found Mukhtar guilty,” he said.