SC grants anticipatory bail to Mukhtar’s son
AAG Garima Prasad told the court during the hearing that Umar Ansari was present on the stage when the alleged utterances were made with the intention of inciting the masses
New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Umar Ansari, son of late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in a case in which he is accused of being part of a conspiracy to promote enmity and obstruct public servants during the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The court had issued notice on Ansari’s plea in January this year and had protected him from arrest in the case lodged in March 2022.
“Having regard to the circumstances, more particularly, the offending statements not being attributable to the petitioner but his brother...we direct that in case the petitioner is arrested, he shall be released on furnishing a bail bond of the sum of ₹20,000,” a bench of justices Hrishikesh Roy and PK Mishra said on Monday, directing Ansari to participate in the trial.
The case pertains to a speech, given during the elections in 2022 by his brother Abbas Ansari, that led to registration of first information report (FIR) over alleged violation of the model code of conduct and under Sections 171-F (causing undue influence at an election), 186 (obstructing public servant), 189 (causing injury to public servant), 153-A (promoting enmity prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian penal code (IPC).
UP’s additional advocate general (AAG) Garima Prasad told the court during the hearing that Umar Ansari was present on the stage when the alleged utterances were made with the intention of inciting the masses.
But senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Ansari along with advocate Nizam Pasha, said that it was a case in which the other accused were already out on bail. “He was on the stage and has never uttered anything. There is no case against me. I have even appeared before the trial court and they have never called me,” Sibal argued.
Ansari approached the court after his plea to quash the FIR against him was rejected by the Allahabad high court on December 19, 2023. The UP government submitted that it was always open for the petitioner to approach the high court for anticipatory bail. However, the court said, “We deem it appropriate to grant relief.”
Sibal submitted that the high court refused to grant bail citing past antecedents of the petitioner. He said out of the five cases against Ansari, bail was granted by the court in two of the cases, in two other cases orders for no coercive steps were passed, and the fifth case was quashed by the high court.
Ansari filed an anticipatory bail plea before the Allahabad high court in September 2022 but withdrew the plea to pursue the other matter to quash the case against him.
The order has come at a time when Umar Ansari’s uncle, Afzal Ansari, sitting MP from Ghazipur, is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from the same seat on Samajwadi Party ticket. The election for the seat is scheduled to take place in the last phase on June 1. Don-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari had died of cardiac arrest on March 28 at a hospital in Banda while in custody of the UP police.