Hate Speech Case: Abbas Ansari disqualified from Assembly, Rajbhar says will appeal in HC
A day after a court in Mau sentenced MLA Abbas Ansari to two years of imprisonment in a three-year-old hate speech case, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Secretariat on Sunday declared his Assembly seat, Mau Sadar, vacant.
A senior official of the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat said Ansari, an MLA of SBSP, has been disqualified from the Assembly as per the Representation of the People Act. 'A letter has been sent to the Election Commission in this regard,' the official added.
Abbas Ansari, the son of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari who died in Banda jail last year, is the sixth MLA in the present House to face disqualification. The five others who lost their Assembly membership since 2022 are Azam Khan, his son Abdullah Azam Khan, Irfan Solanki—all elected on Samajwadi Party tickets—along with Vikram Saini and Ramdular Gond of the BJP.
Meanwhile, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is a Cabinet minister in the BJP government in the state, said they would file an appeal against the conviction of Abbas Ansari.
'He (Abbas Ansari) is an MLA of our party. The court has pronounced its judgment. We will move the high court to present our side,' PTI quoted Rajbhar as saying. Following the disqualification of Abbas Ansari, the SBSP will have five MLAs in the 403-member Legislative Assembly.
Abbas had made the remarks at a public meeting during the 2022 Assembly election campaign. The organiser of the event, Mansoor Ahmed Ansari, was also convicted in the case and was sentenced to six months in jail. Abbas's younger brother, Umar Ansari, is also an accused in the case. However, he is being tried separately.
Both Abbas and Mansoor have been granted bail following their sentencing.
According to police, Abbas and his brother had allegedly threatened to 'teach a lesson' to the administrative officials of Mau after the election. They were booked for criminal intimidation and promoting religious enmity among others.
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