New Delhi: A sitting independent MLA in Uttar Pradesh, Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, was convicted by a designated court on February 4 under TADA (Terrorist and Destructive Activities-prevention-Act), nine years after police arrested him on charges of masterminding the kidnap of a Delhi-based trader and possession of illegal arms.

Special Judge S N Dhingra found Ansari, who was arrested from near the Bahai temple in South Delhi with several arms and ammunition, guilty of the offences of possessing illegal arms under the Arms Act and carrying them without due licence in the notified area of Delhi.

The court also fixed February 5 for pronouncing the quantum of sentence.

Ansari, who is now in jail, had switched parties from the Samajwadi Party to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), only to fight the last Assembly elections as an independent candidate.

The MLA, who has a history of criminal cases against him, had extended support to Mayawati from jail, when the BJP-BSP coalition was facing crisis last year.

Delhi police stumbled on Ansari after they rescued the businessman V P Goel from kidnappers, who had lodged him in a hotel in Panchkula in Haryana. The arrested duo named Ansari as the mastermind and said he had gone to Delhi to collect the ransom amount, police had alleged.

PTI