Abbas Ansari disqualified from U.P. Assembly after conviction in hate speech case
U.P. MLA Abbas Ansari, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, has been disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after he was convicted in a hate speech case, official sources said on Sunday.
Also Read | Supreme Court grants interim bail to U.P. MLA Abbas Ansari
Abbas Ansari was MLA from Mau Assembly constituency. The seat has now been declared vacant, the sources told PTI.
Abbas Ansari, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA, was sentenced to two years imprisonment in a 2022 hate speech case by a special MP-MLA court on Saturday.
According to the prosecution, during the last Assembly elections, Abbas Ansari, who was contesting as an SBSP candidate from the Mau Sadar seat, had threatened the Mau administration during a public meeting at Paharpur ground on March 3, 2022, saying he will "settle scores and teach them a lesson" after the elections.
Defence lawyer Daroga Singh told PTI videos that Ansari was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 189 (threat to cause harm to public servant), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, caste, place of birth, residence and language and spoiling the harmony), 171F (undue influence in election) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Mr. Singh said after hearing both sides, special MP/MLA court Judge K.P. Singh convicted Abbas Ansari on Saturday and sentenced him to two years each under sections 189 and 153-A, one year under section 506 and six months imprisonment under section 171-F. All the sentences will run simultaneously. Ansari has also been fined Rs 2,000.
Under the Representation of the People Act, there is a provision to terminate the membership of the legislative house if the court sentences a member to two years or more.
Abbas Ansari became MLA for the first time in 2022 by winning the election from the Mau Sadar Assembly seat on an SBSP ticket under the Samajwadi Party-led alliance.
SBSP is currently an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government, and the party's President is a Cabinet Minister in the State.
Before that, Abbas Ansari's father, politician Mukhtar Ansari, represented the Mau Sadar assembly seat for a long time.
Mukhtar Ansari, who was incarcerated in Banda district jail, died of a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh in March 2024.
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