UP Elections 2017: Mukhtar has joined Mayawati's BSP with his son and brother last month.
Highlights
- Don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has 40 criminal cases against him
- An undertrial, he was allowed to campaign following a lower court order
- The Election Commission had opposed it, saying he might influence voting
Mukhtar Ansari, the UP strongman who has 40 criminal cases against him including those of murder and kidnapping, will not be allowed to come out of jail and campaign to seek votes. In an unprecedented step, the Election Commission approached the Delhi High Court and asked that a lower court order, allowing Mr Ansari parole for campaigning, be cancelled. The court today agreed.
Mr Ansari -- who has been in jail as an undertrial in a murder case -- had got the parole from the lower court on February 16. But the Delhi High Court put a freeze on it the next day after being approached by the poll panel. A candidate from Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, he was expected to be allowed out with an armed escort every day for campaigning at the Mau Sadar seat, where he had been elected a record four times.
"The Election Commission had reports that Mukhtar Anasari could impact free and fair polling if he is allowed to come out on parole," Amit Sharma, one of the lawyers who argued on behalf of the poll commission, told NDTV. The Uttar Pradesh government also opposed Ansari's parole.
Today, the Election Commission told the High Court that under the Delhi Parole Guidelines of 2010, there was no provision for undertrials to get parole. This was available only to convicts and even then the correct procedure is to first approach the jail warden.
Mr Ansari's lawyers, Supreme Court counsels Salman Khursheed and Kapil Sibal, had argued that in an emergent situation, a trial court could grant parole as was done in this case.
Mr Ansari has been in a Lucknow jail since 2005 is facing trial in the murder of BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai and his six supporters that took place the same year. Rai's widow had got the case transferred to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh on grounds that Mr Ansari could influence and intimidate witnesses and a fair trial would not be possible in the state.