High Court sets aside Afzal Ansari’s conviction

Prayagraj, July 29

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The Allahabad High Court today set aside a Ghazipur court order sentencing Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari to four-year imprisonment under the Gangsters Act in a case linked to the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005.

With Justice SK Singh allowing his plea against the conviction, the SP MP can now continue as a member of Parliament. The court also dismissed pleas by the UP government and Piyush Kumar Rai, Krishnanand Rai’s son, seeking enhancement of the Ghazipur MP’s sentence in the Gangsters Act case.

The court recalled that Ansari had already been acquitted in the “base case” of 2005, in which allegation of hatching conspiracy was levelled against him, before framing of charges under Section 3(1) of the Gangsters Act against him on September 23, 2022.

An MP-MLA court in Ghazipur had in 2023 convicted Ansari and sentenced him to four-year jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh in the Gangsters Act case. The HC said the prosecution could not prove its case and charges “beyond reasonable doubt”.