Kanpur arson case: Allahabad HC grants bail to ex-SP MLA Solanki, but refuses stay on conviction

Though Solanki has been granted bail in one case, he will not be set free as according to his counsel Imran Ullah, he is booked in other criminal cases also and he has yet to get bail in those cases

The Allahabad high court on Thursday to granted bail to former Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki but rejected his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a 2022 case of setting a house on fire in Kanpur.

On November 8, the high court had reserved its order in the case. (For Representation)

On November 8, the court had reserved its order in the case. Solanki had lost his membership of state assembly after his conviction as the sentence was of more than two years.

Even after the pronouncement of Thursday’s judgment, Solanki will continue to remain disqualified as an MLA as the high court has refused to stay his conviction in the case.

Also, though Solanki has been released on bail in the house arson case, he will not be set free as according to his counsel Imran Ullah, he is booked in other criminal cases also and he has yet to get bail in those cases.

While granting bail but simultaneously refusing to stay conviction of Solanki, a division bench of Justice Rajiv Gupta and Justice Surendra Singh observed, “It is true that this court has the power to stay the conviction, however, such power is to be exercised in exceptional circumstances in a case, where the court is convinced for not staying the conviction would lead to injustice and irreversible consequences”.

“We find that the wider opinion is that persons charged with crimes ought to be disqualified from contesting elections to public offices. In the backdrop of the said circumstance and the settled principle of law laid down by the apex court, we are of the opinion that the appellant, who have been charged with serious offences and having long criminal history, in which their bails have also been rejected by this court and even by the apex court, we do not find it to be a case of stay of conviction”, the court added.

“Keeping in view its wider social impact for staying the conviction and having no exceptional case been pointed out, we are of the opinion that merely by pleading that appellant – Irfan Solanki by his conviction stands disqualified as per the Representation of People Act, 1951, is no ground to suspend the conviction”, the court said.

The case pertains to setting afire the house of one Fatima of Defence Colony in Kanpur’s Jajmau area in 2022 allegedly by Solanki and others in a bid to grab the plot.

They later surrendered before the police and were booked under the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986.Solanki filed the present criminal appeal before the high court against this judgment.