"He accumulated enormous wealth by striking terror in minds of people": Allahabad High Court denies bail to Mukhtar Ansari

The Allahabad High Court last week refused to grant bail to former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Mukhtar Ansari in a case under the Uttar Pradesh Gangster and Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act 1986 [Mokhtar Ansari v. State of Uttar Pradesh]..While rejecting Ansari's bail plea, Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh observed that:"If the present accused-applicant (referring to Ansari) is not a gangster, then in this country no one can be said to be a gangster. He and his gang members accumulated enormous wealth by striking fear and terror in the minds and hearts of the people and his freedom would be peril of the law abiding citizens of this Court."The Court also expressed immense disappointment at the fact that criminals like Ansari, who is facing almost two dozen sessions trials and other cases, get elected by the public as their representative."It is a most unfortunate and ugly face of our democracy where a person on one hand facing almost two dozen sessions trials, but he gets elected by the public as their representative for six consecutive times," the Court observed..The case dates back to 2014 when it was alleged that Ansari and his gang members went to a village and opened fire on workers using automatic guns, which resulted in the death of a worker and severe injury to other workers.A case was registered against him and other members under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 307, 506 and120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Uttar Pradesh Gangster and Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act 1986.Since the incident created an atmosphere of a fear, a Gangster Chart was prepared and was approved by the Magistrate wherein it was stated that because of the fear and terror of Ansari's gang, no one was coming forward to lodge a report at the police station or give evidence against any member of the gang..The Court also took note of the criminal antecedents of Ansari, particularly the observation made in the June 13, 2022 order of the High Court wherein he was denied bail in the MLA fund misappropriation (Vidhayak Nidhi) case.In its June 13 order, the Court had observed that Ansari is a notorious criminal, who has an image of ‘Robin Hood’ in Northern India. He is harden and habitual offender, who has been in sphere of crime since 1986, but he has managed not a single conviction against him. He has more than 56 cases to his credit of heinous nature and he could manage his affairs in such a way that he did not receive a single conviction barring of two which have been rendered recently.After considering the allegations and also taking into consideration the fact that in most cases the he could secure acquittal as the witnesses turned hostile because of fear and terror or the witnesses got eliminated, the Court was of the view that Ansari is not entitled to be enlarged on bail.The plea was, therefore, rejected..The Allahabad High Court had, in September 2022, sentenced Ansari to seven years' imprisonment for intimidating a jailer in 2003 by abusing and pointing a pistol at him and threatening to kill him. However, on January 2 this year, the Supreme Court had stayed the operation of this order.[Read Order]