Allahabad HC sets aside Afzal Ansari’s conviction
The court said that Ansari had already been acquitted in the base case regarding the abduction and murder of former MLA Krishnanand Rai.
The Allahabad high court on Monday set aside the Ghazipur court order sentencing Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari to four years’ imprisonment under the Gangsters Act over the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005.
The HC order means that Ansari will continue as the Lok Sabha MP from Ghazipur. Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh had reserved the judgment on July 4 after hearing Ansari’s appeal. Ansari was convicted by an MP-MLA court in Ghazipur last year in the Gangsters Act case. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and fined ₹1 lakh.
Additionally, the court dismissed the Uttar Pradesh government’s appeal seeking an enhancement of Ansari’s sentence in the same case. The court also dismissed the criminal revision filed by Piyush Kumar Rai, son of Krishnanand Rai, seeking an enhancement of the sentence.
The court said that Ansari had already been acquitted in the base case regarding the abduction and murder of former MLA Krishnanand Rai.
“I find that the trial court while convicting the appellant has not considered the fact in proper prospective that appellant had already been acquitted in base case crime No. 589 of 2005, in which allegation of hatching conspiracy was leveled against him,” justice Singh observed.
“From the perusal of the impugned judgment and order of conviction of the appellant, it seems that the trial judge of this case was quite influenced by the observations given by the trial court at Delhi in base case crime No. 589 of 2005, relating to the hostile attitude of most of the prosecution witnesses in that case,” added justice Singh.
Allowing a criminal appeal filed by Afzal Ansari, justice Sanjay Kumar Singh set aside the judgment of the Ghazipur court dated April 29, 2023. The MP-MLA court of Ghazipur had convicted Afzal and sentenced him to four years in jail, imposing a fine of ₹1 lakh in the Gangsters Act case. His younger brother, Mukhtar Ansari, was also sentenced to 10 years in jail in the same case. Following this, Afzal was disqualified as an MP. He then filed the present criminal appeal before the high court.
On July 24, 2023, the high court granted bail to the five-time MLA and two-time MP Afzal Ansari but declined to stay his conviction. Consequently, while Afzal was released from jail but his parliamentary membership was not restored, and he was disqualified from contesting future elections due to the sentence exceeding two years.
However, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, leading to the restoration of his parliamentary membership and eligibility to contest Lok Sabha elections. The apex court also directed the high court to expedite the hearing of his appeal.
Earlier, the court had reserved its judgment on July,4,2024 after hearing all sides at length.
