Prayagraj. The Allahabad High Court on Monday deferred the hearing on the criminal appeal of Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari till July 2. Ansari has challenged the sentence awarded by a Ghazipur court in a case under the Gangster Act. The case against Afzal was registered after the murder of BJP MP Krishnanand Rai in 2005. Along with the current criminal appeal, the court is also hearing the appeal of the state government and Krishnanand Rai’s son Piyush Rai to enhance Afzal’s sentence in the same case.
During the hearing on Monday, Afzal’s lawyer Upendra Upadhyay informed the court that an objection has been filed by the appellant against the revision petition filed by Piyush Kumar Rai and the government. On this, Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh adjourned the hearing on this criminal appeal till July 2. On April 29, 2023, the MP-MLA court of Ghazipur convicted Afzal in the Gangster Act case and sentenced him to four years in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh. The court also convicted Afzal’s brother Mukhtar Ansari and sentenced him to 10 years in jail.
Subsequently, Afzal was disqualified as an MP after which he filed the present criminal appeal in the High Court. The High Court granted bail to Afzal, a five-time MLA and two-time MP, on July 24, 2023, but refused to stay his conviction in the case. As a result, his membership of the parliament was not restored. With this, he became ineligible to contest elections in future as the sentence awarded to him was more than two years. Subsequently, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, as a result of which his membership of the parliament was restored and he became eligible to contest the Lok Sabha elections. However, the Supreme Court directed to expedite the criminal appeal pending in the High Court and decide on it by June 30.
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