The Allahabad High Court has sought reply from the government of Uttar Pradesh on a petition seeking cancellation of FIR against Mukhtar Ansari and many others in the Usri Chatti incident of Ghazipur that took place on July 15, 2001.
The Division Bench of Justice Jayendra Kaushal Thaker and Justice Saurabh Srivastava passed this order while hearing a petition filed by Gaus Mohiuddin Ansari and two others.
The Court issued notice to private respondent no 4 who is a resident of State of Bihar and who, after 22 years of incident having taken place has come up before the Police Authority that the petitioners were also involved in the incident which took place way back in the year 2001.
The Court has granted four weeks time to the respondents to file its reply.
In paragraph no 10 and 11 the vocation of the petitioner has been mentioned and it is also stated in paragraph no 13 that they were closely connected with ex-M.L.A Mokhtar Ansari (then MLA from Mau Constituency), the Court noted.
“As 21 years have elapsed since the time incident is alleged to have occurred, we feel that looking to the facts and circumstances and the fact that in the State of Uttar Pradesh the accused cannot move the Court seeking anticipatory bail if they are alleged to have committed homicide and they are facing charges under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code also”, the Court observed.
“Hence, we grant four weeks’ time to the police authority, if the police authority wants to investigate the matter, they may interrogate the accused and carry on investigation but no coercive means be adopted till the next date of hearing”, the order reads.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the petition on March 13, 2023.