Afzal Ansari, the brother of late Mukhtar Ansari, has had his four-year jail sentence set aside by the Allahabad High Court on Monday.
This means that Ansari, who is a Member of Parliament from the Samajwadi Party (SP) shall continue being one. He won the recent Lok Sabha election from Ghazipur- a seat that has been his family stronghold.
The court, setting aside the sentence imposed by the MP/MLA court in Ghazipur, noted, “…the prosecution could not prove its case and charges under Section 3(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt.”
The charge against Ansari was of hatching a conspiracy for the murder of Krishnand Rai, a BJP MLA.
Rai was shot dead in 2005 in Ghazipur when Mukhtar Ansari was in jail. Six aides were also murdered. It was alleged that the killers were hired by Mukhtar Ansari and had acted at his behest.
The court noted that Afzal Ansari had been acquitted in a different trial of the same charge. The inability to prove his culpability (in connivance with a gang run by his brother Mukhtar) has also been born by the fact that the first FIR in the case- registered in December 2007 did not mention Afzal’s name as part of the gang. This was first mentioned 15 years later. There was no evidence to prove his involvement in anti-social activities and no corroboration of the testimony of the sole witness, that is the investigating officer, in the case. An earlier investigating officer had in fact deposed that there was no complaint about Afzal Ansari and that his family was ‘respectable’.
The statement of Rai’s brother, Ram Narayan that Afzal Ansari was the lead member of the gang which had the main motive of murdering people and grabbing land ‘by putting the people in fear’ was also denied by the investigating officer.
The court also rejected appeals filed by Rai’s son Piyush and the government to increase the quantum of punishment.
