The Supreme Court has rejected the anticipatory bail application of Abbas Ansari, a sitting Member of Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh from Mau constituency and son of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, in connection with a case registered under the Arms Act.
The Bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Vikram Nath dismissed the petition challenging the Allahabad High Court order, which had refused to grant him interim bail on the grounds that Abbas had been trying to ‘avoid’ the ‘process’ of the Court.
It had further noted that a special MP-MLA Court on August 25 had declared him as an absconder.
As per the case, Abbas had allegedly got his arms licence issued by the District Magistrate of Lucknow transferred to New Delhi without giving any prior information to the authorities in Lucknow. It was also alleged that Abbas’ intention was to illegally buy and use firearms.
The First Information Report (FIR) was registered in October, 2019 under Sections 420, 467, 468, and 471 of IPC and Section 30 of the Arms Act.
As per the FIR, a licence was issued to the MLA in 2012 for a 12-bore DBBL Gun by the authorities at Lucknow, which was transferred and registered to his Delhi address on an application given by him. Abbas got seven more weapons endorsed on the said licence, claiming himself to be a renowned shooter.
As per the Prosecution Counsel, police recovered as many as 4431 cartridges, including the metal jacketed ones, from the MLA.
He contended that as a shooter, keeping the metal jacketed cartridges for shooting purposes was against the law and also against the standard prescribed by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).
The Uttar Pradesh government was represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, Senior Advocate and Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad and Advocate-on-Record (AOR) Ruchiral Goel, along with Advocates Priyanka Swami and Adit Jayeshbhai Shah.
(Case Title: Abbas Ansari vs The State of Uttar Pradesh)