The Allahabad High Court has quashed the conviction of Abbas Ansari, son of Mukhtar Ansari, in a 2022 hate speech case, potentially restoring his assembly membership.
Abbas Ansari, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party MLA, was sentenced to two years imprisonment in a 2022 hate speech case by a special MP-MLA court on Saturday.
Two members of the Sunil Rathi gang have been arrested for allegedly extorting businessmen in Haridwar and Dehradun. The arrests were made by a joint team of Uttarakhand Police STF and Dehradun Police. The investigation revealed links to Sunil Rathi, who is currently in jail.
Ansari's family has alleged that he died due to "slow poisoning" in the jail.
Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district early Tuesday with a complaint of abdominal pain.
The body was brought to the family's ancestral burial ground, about half a km from their residence, where a grave was dug on Friday near that of Mukhtar Ansari's parents.
Mukhtar Ansari was subjected to slow poisoning in jail, Umar Ansari, the son of the gangster-turned-politician who died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Banda, alleged early Friday.
Ansari's brother Afzal said they do not trust either the postmortem or the viscera reports.
Thousands of people from Ghazipur district and nearby areas turned up to attend the last rites of Mukhtar Ansari who died of cardiac arrest in Banda on Thursday.
Ansari was taken to the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda from the district jail after his health deteriorated.
People had also started gathering at Mukhtar Ansari's residence in Ghazipur and there was a large deployment of security personnel around the house.
'This should have happened long ago. God took a long time, but did good'
Banda chief judicial magistrate Bhagwan Das Gupta appointed Garima Singh, additional chief judicial magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda) as the investigating officer in the case, the official said.
A day after Ansari's burial, police constable Faiyaz Khan, posted at a police station in Lucknow, allegedly made certain comments in favour of the gangster-politician on his WhatsApp status and also raised doubts over his death.
The case under the Gangsters Act was registered against Ansari at the Karanda police station in 2010 following the murder of Kapildev Singh, a teacher, and an attempt on the life of Meer Hasan, a trader, both in 2009.
The gangster-politician was booked in 65 criminal cases ranging from murder to extortion and was elected an MLA five times on the tickets of different political parties.
'The Mulayam government pressurised officials, IG-Range, DIG, and SP-STF were transferred, even I was made to resign within 15 days'
Ansari surrendered after much pressure was exerted on him.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in next year's Uttar Pradesh polls, party supremo Mayawati said Friday, announcing that jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari will not be given a party ticket from Mau again.
"The court of Additional Sessions Judge/First MP-MLA Court Durgesh also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mukhtar and Rs 1 lakh on Afzal," ADGC Criminal Neeraj Srivastava said.
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday took custody of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari at Punjab's Rupnagar jail to transfer him to Banda prison.
A court in Varanasi on Monday convicted gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the murder of Congress leader Awadhesh Rai more than 30 years ago.
Justice D K Singh passed the order overturning the acquittal by a special MP-MLA court in 2020.
Ansari had in a hearing told the court that a contract of Rs 5 crore had been given for his killing inside the jail and that unauthorised people entered the prison without making any entry in the register, according to his lawyer.
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Praksh Rajbhar on Thursday said his alliance with the SP will support jailed BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari in the upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
After spending over two years in a Punjab prison, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was brought back to Banda jail early on Wednesday morning.
The court said had the prosecution witnesses not turned hostile, the outcome of the trial would have been different.
Shahrukh Pathan, a gangster with a history of crimes including murder and jail break, was killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Muzaffarnagar. He was wanted in multiple cases and was a close aide of slain mafia Sanjeev Jiva.
Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati said her party will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in the upcoming polls and announced that Ansari, who is lodged in a jail in Banda, will not be given a ticket from Mau again.
Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal's merger with the Samajwadi Party last year had triggered turmoil in that party.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Punjab government to hand over the custody of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who is lodged in Rupnagar jail there, to Uttar Pradesh Police.
In a major boost to the Congress in Varanasi -- where it is fighting an uphill battle against Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal -- Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal has announced its support for the Congress with an aim to defeat Narendra Modi.
Controversial Uttar Pradesh legislator Mukhtar Ansari was on Saturday released on custody parole from Central Jail in Agra for a day to campaign in Lok Sabha election.
Samajwadi Party candidate Afzal Ansari is the incumbent MP and slain don Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother. Afzal had won the 2019 election on a BSP ticket after defeating the BJP's Manoj Sinha, now the J&K lieutenant governor.
Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's brother alleged on Wednesday that inhuman treatment was given to him while being transferred to Banda jail from Punjab, saying it could have been better had he been shot dead at a road crossing.
While Justice Kant and Bhuyan delivered the majority verdict, Justice Datta dismissed Ansari's appeal against the Allahabad high court order.
He claimed SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar has deviated from the party mission of working for the poor and deprived, and his only agenda is to collect money.
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