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Allahabad HC sets aside Ghazipur court order convicting SP MP Afzal Ansari in Krishnanand Rai murder case
The Allahabad high court set aside Ghazipur MP-MLA court order sentencing Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari for four years in Krishnanand Rai murder case
The Allahabad high court on Monday set aside Ghazipur MP-MLA court order sentencing Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari for four years in the murder of former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnanand Rai, PTI reported. The high court order means that Ansari will continue as the Lok Sabha MP from Ghazipur.
The high court's Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh on July 4 had reserved the judgment on hearing Ansari's appeal.
Afzal Ansari, the brother of deceased gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, was convicted by an MP-MLA court in Ghazipur last year in the abduction and murder case pertaining to the killing of former MLA Krishnanand Rai. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment and slapped with a fine of ₹1 lakh.
Had the high court upheld the local court's order, Ansari would have had to vacate his Lok Sabha seat. As per the Representation of the People Act, any MP or state legislator sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time.
Afzal Ansari had filed an appeal seeking cancellation of the sentence. On the other hand, the state government and Krishnanand Rai's son, Piyush Kumar Rai, had filed an appeal seeking an increase in his sentence.
Afzal Ansari is the brother of Mukhtar Ansari, who died in a UP jail recently. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, he was pitted against BJP's Paras Nath Rai and BSP's Umesh Kumar Singh. Ansari won by a margin of 1,24,861 votes against Pars Nath Rai.
Krishnanand Rai, was an MLA from Mohammadabad assembly seat in Ghazipur. On November 29, 2005, his convoy was ambushed at a narrow bridge in Ussarchati locality of Ghazipur. The MLA was on his way back home after inaugurating a cricket tournament in Siyadi area. Rai was sprayed with bullets along with six others by a group of assailants armed with AK-47 rifles.
