Lucknow: Mukhtar Ansari, a jailed gangster-turned-politician, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on Saturday in the 2005 kidnapping and murder case of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, media reports said.

This came hours after a court in Uttar Pradesh convicted his brother and Bahujan Samaj Party MP Afzal Ansari and sentenced to four years in prison in the same 2007 Gangsters Act case, the reports added.

Further, the MP MLA court also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mukhtar Ansari and Rs 1 lakh on Afzal Ansari. The brothers were involved

Afzal Ansari's Lok Sabha membership is likely to be revoked following his conviction as Parliament's rules state that any member sentenced to two or more years in prison will be disqualified.

Recently, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lost his MP status after he was sentenced to two years in jail in the 2019 Modi surname case.

Expressing satisfaction with the court’s verdict, Krishnanand Rai’s said that the stranglehold of the mafia in Uttar Pradesh has ended and that she has faith in the judiciary.

BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai was allegedly murdered in Ghazipur in 2005 allegedly by Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari.