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The Allahabad High Court is slated to give its verdict on Monday on a appeal filed by Ghazipur Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari challenging his four-year sentence by a trial court in a Gangsters Act case linked to the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh had earlier reserved the court's judgement on July 4 after hearing Ansari's appeal. Afzal Ansari was convicted by the Special Court MP/MLA of Ghazipur in a Gangster Act case and awarded four years in jail. If the Allahabad High Court upholds the lower court's decision, Ansari will have to vacate his seat. He won the Ghazipur seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Notably, according to the Representation of the People Act, any MP or state legislator sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time. Afzal Ansari filed an appeal seeking cancellation of the sentence. On the other hand, the state government and Krishnanand Rai's son, Piyush Kumar Rai, had filed an appeal seeking an increase in his sentence. Senior advocates Gopal Swaroop Chaturvedi and Dayashankar Mishra and advocate Upendra Upadhyay, arguing on behalf of Afzal Ansari, had said that action under the Gangster Act initiated against Ansari following Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai's murder case was "illegal." Afzal Ansari is the brother of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansasri, who died in a UP jail recently. He was pitted against BJP's Paras Nath Rai and BSP's Umesh Kumar Singh in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. Ansari won by a margin of 1,24,861 votes against Pars Nath Rai. Earlier on April 2023, the MP MLA court in Ghazipur convicted then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari in a kidnapping and murder case pertaining to the killing of Krishnanand Rai and sentenced him to four years imprisonment. A fine of Rs 1 lakh was also imposed on him. The MP MLA court had also convicted Mukhtar Ansari in the case and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. A fine of Rs 5 lakh was also imposed on the jailed mafia. (ANI)
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