The Allahabad High court on Monday granted interim relief of protection from arrest to Samajwadi MP from Ghazipur Afzal Ansari in an FIR registered by Ghazipur Police after a file related to the purchase and sale of a firearm on his licence allegedly went missing. The interim relief is granted till August 10—the next date of hearing in the case.
The case was lodged after allegedly uncovering the missing official records, irregularities in weapon transactions and an untraceable rifle purchased on the MP’s licence. The bench comprising Justice Siddharth Varma and Justice Achal Sachdev granted interim relief to Afzal Ansari.
According to the petitioner’s advocate Upendra Upadhyay, when state government counsel requested the court to adjourn hearing so that AAG Manish Goel may appear in this case to represent the state government on the next date, the court fixed the next date of hearing as August 10 and granted interim relief to Ansari till then.
According to the police, the records were deliberately made to disappear in collusion with the arms clerks concerned. Based on the investigation, an FIR was registered at Kotwali police station in Ghazipur against Afzal Ansari, former arms clerk Gaurishankar Lal and another arms clerk Sugriv Tiwari, under charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and relevant provisions of the Arms Act.