The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay an order of the Allahabad high court sentencing gangster Mukhtar Ansari to five years.
In jail under the Gangsters Act while issuing notice on his petition challenging the high court order passed in September last year that reversed his acquittal in a 23-year-old case.
A bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on Ansari’s petition and listed the matter after four weeks.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Ansari sought a stay of the high court order of September 23, 2022, pointing out that out of 25 persons, only the petitioner has been sentenced while the remaining have been acquitted.
“I was also acquitted by a special court (dealing with MP/MLA cases) in 2020. Nobody is convicted and I am now declared a gangster on zero evidence,” Sibbal said.
The state represented by additional advocate general Garima Prasad told the Court that Ansari, a former member of the UP legislative assembly, is a dreaded criminal having more than 50 criminal cases involving heinous offences registered against him.
The present case against Ansari was registered at Lucknow in 1999 accusing him of having committed heinous offences of murder, extortion, kidnapping and abduction.
The first information report alleged that Ansari along with gang member Abhay Singh got a jail superintendent killed in Lucknow’s Hazratganj area and used to commit crimes such as extortion and kidnapping in an organised manner to accumulate wealth.
The high court in its order noted that the special court erred in acquitting Ansari.
The special court had acquitted Ansari stating that the “prosecution could not prove the offence against him beyond reasonable doubt”.
The high court while reversing the trial court decision pronounced a five-year sentence and a fine of Rs.50,000 to Ansari and stated, “Acquittal or conviction is immaterial for invoking the provisions of Gangsters Act against a person, who is otherwise a member of a gang and commits offences which are defined under Section 2(b) of the Gangsters Act.”