Jailed Lawmakers Rule as India Murder Brings Few Punishments
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Mukhtar Ansari has been in jail since 2005, charged with ordering a rival’s murder by hit men who pumped 400 bullets into the victim’s car. He doesn’t expect that or more than 30 other charges to bounce him out of his day job as a state legislator.
From behind bars, Ansari predicted he will be re-elected with a majority in monthlong polls whose results will be announced tomorrow in Uttar Pradesh, a 560-mile swath of northern India stretching southeast from New Delhi. He has reason to be confident given his three consecutive elections to the region’s legislature since 1996, twice from prison.