Supreme Court Stays UP Court Order Convicting Ex-MLA Mukhtar Ansari

The Supreme Court today stayed the Allahabad High Court order convicting former Uttar Pradesh MLA Mukhtar Ansari and sentencing him to a seven-year jail term for intimidating and threatening to kill a jailer in 2003.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai Justice Vikram Nath also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and sought its response.

The trial court had acquitted the former Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Ansari, but the Allahabad High Court reversed the trial court order and convicted and sentenced him to seven years of jail term.

Ansari approached the top court challenging the Allahabad High Court order.

On September 21, 2022, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to seven years in jail for threatening to kill a jailer and pointing a pistol at him.

The High Court had set aside the order of the trial court acquitting Ansari.

The case dates to 2003 when Lucknow district prison jailer SK Awasthi registered an FIR with Alambagh police alleging he was threatened for ordering the frisking of people who came to meet Ansari.

Awasthi also alleged that Ansari had pointed a pistol at him and abused him.

The High Court, while convicting Ansari had noted he has the reputation of a dreaded criminal and mafia don who had more than 60 cases of heinous offences registered against him.

Ansari is currently lodged in Uttar Pradesh's Banda jail. He was brought to Banda jail from a Punjab jail on April 7, after an order from the top court.

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