Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari faces the prospect of losing his Lok Sabha membership after a special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur on Saturday convicted him in a case filed in 2007 Gangsters Act case, reported The Indian Express.
Afzal, who was out on bail, was sentenced to four years imprisonment in an Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act case lodged at Mohammadabad police station in Ghazipur district in 2007.
The court also sentenced gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari, lodged in Banda jail, who appeared via video conferencing, to 10 years imprisonment in the 2007 Gangsters Act case.
“The court of Additional Sessions Judge/First MP-MLA Court Durgesh also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mukhtar and Rs 1 lakh on Afzal,” ADGC Criminal Neeraj Srivastava said.
This is the first case in which Afzal has been convicted.
The UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act cases against Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari were lodged in November 2007 by the Ghazipur police.
According to the prosecution in the 2007 case, it was lodged on the ground of the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and six others in the Bhawarkol area of Ghazipur district in November 2005.
The murder case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the direction of the Allahabad High Court, and in 2019, a special CBI court in Delhi had acquitted Afzal, Mukhtar and five others in the BJP leader murder case.
Meanwhile, the defence counsel for the brothers, Liyakat Ali said that they would file appeals against the convictions.