Allahabad High Court Verdict on Afzal Ansari's Appeal in Gangster Act Case Looms

The Allahabad High Court will deliver its verdict on Monday regarding Afzal Ansari's appeal against his four-year sentence under the Gangster Act, connected to the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. The court's decision could lead to Ansari vacating his Ghazipur parliamentary seat if upheld.

The Allahabad High Court is set to pronounce its verdict on Monday on an appeal filed by Ghazipur Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari. Ansari is challenging a four-year sentence handed down by a trial court under the Gangsters Act, a case linked to the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh reserved judgement on July 4 after hearing Ansari's appeal.

Convicted by the Special Court MP/MLA in Ghazipur, Ansari was sentenced to four years in prison. Should the Allahabad High Court uphold this decision, Ansari would have to vacate his seat. He secured the Ghazipur seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. As per the Representation of the People Act, any MP or state legislator sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more is disqualified 'from the date of such conviction' and will remain so for six years after completing their sentence.

Ansari's appeal seeks to overturn his sentence, while the state government and Krishnanand Rai's son, Piyush Kumar Rai, have filed an appeal for a longer sentence. Senior advocates Gopal Swaroop Chaturvedi and Dayashankar Mishra, along with advocate Upendra Upadhyay, representing Ansari, argued that actions under the Gangster Act taken against Ansari post the murder case of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai were 'illegal.'

Afzal Ansari, the brother of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari—who recently died in a UP jail—contested the last Lok Sabha elections against BJP's Paras Nath Rai and BSP's Umesh Kumar Singh, winning by a margin of 1,24,861 votes over Paras Nath Rai. Previously in April 2023, the MP MLA court in Ghazipur had convicted then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari in a kidnapping and murder case related to Krishnanand Rai's killing, sentencing him to four years in prison and imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

The MP MLA court also convicted Mukhtar Ansari in the same case, sentencing him to 10 years imprisonment and imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh. (ANI)

(With inputs from agencies.)