HC cancels Afzal Ansari’s sentence, he can continue as MP

Lucknow: Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari has received significant relief from the Allahabad High Court, which has cancelled his sentence under the Gangster Act related to the BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai murder case.

The high court accepted Samajwadi Party MP Ansari’s appeal, nullifying the four-year sentence previously handed down by a special court. This decision, delivered by Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh, ensures that Ansari’s membership in Parliament remains intact.

An MP-MLA court in Ghazipur had on April 29, 2023, convicted Ansari and sentenced him to four years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh in the Gangsters Act case.

Following this, Ansari was disqualified as an MP. In response, Ansari appealed to the high court to overturn the sentence, while the state government and Krishnanand Rai’s son filed appeals seeking to increase the sentence.

Initially, Ansari’s appeal was rejected by the high court, prompting him to approach the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court subsequently suspended the sentence and remanded the case back to the high court for a fresh hearing. Following the Supreme Court’s order, the high court reserved its decision on July 4. During the re-hearing, senior advocates Gopal Swaroop Chaturvedi, Dayashankar Mishra, and Upendra Upadhyay, representing Ansari, argued that the gangster charges were illegitimate since Ansari had already been acquitted in the Krishnanand Rai murder case.