Who was Jiva aka Sanjeev Maheshwari, Mukhtar Ansari aide shot dead inside Lucknow court?

Sanjeev Maheshwari alias Jiva, who was shot dead in the Lucknow court premises by the assailants posing as lawyers, was a close aide of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari. According to the police, Jiva was an accused in the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Brahm Dutt Dwivedi in February 1997 in Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad district. Mukhtar Ansari is also an accused in the case. 

#LIVE | Mukhtar Ansari's aide gangster Jiva killed inside the court premises. First visual of shooter on Republic.#MukhtarAnsari #LucknowCourt #Lucknow #Jiva #Jeeva https://t.co/35zJE4enQE pic.twitter.com/WzwV6qJbbY

— Republic (@republic) June 7, 2023

Sanjeev Jiva was facing charges in the cases of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, and others. 

The sensational killing of a BJP MLA

BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi was a sitting MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad constituency and was also a cabinet minister in the Kalyan Singh-led government of Uttar Pradesh. On February 10, 1997, Dwivedi was shot dead inside his car while he was returning from a ‘Tilak’ ceremony in his constituency. The assailants also killed his bodyguard, identified as BK Tiwari during the attack. 

Sanjeev was sentenced to life imprisonment

The assassination of the BJP MLA was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), following which on July 17, 2003, the CBI court in Lucknow had sentenced gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari Jiva and former Samajwadi Party MLA Vijay Singh to life imprisonment in the case. Both convicts had challenged the judgment and filed an appeal in the high court. In 2017, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court upheld the trial court judgment of life imprisonment, after which the case was moved to the Supreme Court in 2018.

BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai’s murder

BJP MLA from Mohammadabad Assembly, Krishnanand Rai was murdered on November 29, 2005, while he was attending a family wedding at his village. He was ambushed on his way back to his home by the assailants, during which a total of seven people were killed.

During the investigation into the case, Jiva's name cropped up.  

Jiva's ties with criminal gangs

While Jiva was well known to be an aide of Mukhtar Ansari, he is also said to be associated with Munna Bajrangi and the Bhati gang. A resident of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, he is said to have been involved in three dozen criminal cases, including murder and extortion.