The Supreme Court today closed all its proceedings on an appeal filed by deceased gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari challenging an order passed by the Allahabad High Court sentencing him to five-year jail term in a 24-year old case.
After taking note of the statement that Mukhtar Ansari has passed away, a bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal observed that the petitioner is no more and the proceedings shall be abated. Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Bandra, Uttar Pradesh on March 28.
On October 13, 2023, the apex court had sought the response of the Uttar Pradesh government on Ansari’s appeal against the High Court order. Earlier, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on September 23 had overturned Ansari’s acquittal and sentenced him to a five-year jail term in a case related to the Gangster Act.
The Allahabad High Court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Mukhtar Ansari as it overturned the acquittal order by a special MP-MLA court in 2020. The FIR was registered with Lucknow’s Hazratganj police in 1999 under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.
Furthermore, a special court had acquitted Ansari in 2020. The state filed an appeal against acquittal in 2021. The special court had acquitted him stating that the prosecution could not prove the offence against him beyond reasonable doubt.
Meanwhile, an Interlocutory Application has been presented to the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to launch an inquiry into the deaths, killings, and encounters of detainees and accused individuals in police custody in Uttar Pradesh since 2017.
Advocate Vishal Tiwari lodged the application as part of his ongoing writ petition, which seeks to investigate encounter deaths in the state. Notably, the application raises suspicions regarding Mukhtar Ansari’s demise on March 28.
Mukhtar Ansari, serving a life sentence, passed away in a hospital. Though the autopsy report cited cardiac arrest as the cause of death, his family members are skeptical. The family alleged that his death may have been caused by slow poisoning while in jail.