Supreme Court stays Allahabad High Court order convicting Mukhtar Ansari in FIR for intimidating jailer

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Allahabad High Court order which sentenced former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Mukhtar Ansari to seven years' imprisonment for intimidating a jailer in 2003 by abusing and pointing a pistol at him and threatening to kill him. (Mukhtar Ansari vs State of Uttar Pradesh).A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath passed the order on an appeal filed by Ansari against the High Court order convicting him.The bench issued notice to the State of Uttar Pradesh in the matter while staying the order.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal represented Ansari while the State was represented by Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad..Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh of Allahabad High Court had, on September 21, set aside a 2020 order passed by the Special Judge trying MP/MLA cases acquitting Ansari of the charges, on the ground that it had completely ignored the evidence of the jailor given in examination-in-chief and had only considered his cross examination. The High Court had held,"The approach of the trial Court is palpably erroneous and against the well settled legal position as discussed above. The impugned judgment and order passed by the learned trial court is unsustainable.".As per the prosecution case, the complainant jailer SK Awasthi was posted at the District Jail, Lucknow in the year 2003.On April 23, 2003, some persons came to meet Ansari in jail. When the jailer refused to allow them to meet Ansari, the MLA came to the jailer's office and allegedly took exception to the same. Ansari even threatened to get the jailer killed and abused him. He then took a revolver from one of the persons who had come to visit him and pointed it towards the jailer, it was claimed.A First Information Report (FIR) was subsequently lodged against Ansari, after which a chargesheet was filed under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal intimidation.After the trial court had acquitted Ansari, the State moved the High Court in appeal.The High Court overturned the trial court verdict and held that the evidence on record proved that Ansari had taken a pistol/revolver from a visitor and pointed it towards the jailer and threatened to kill him.."The accused-respondent is convicted for offences under Sections 353, 504, 506 IPC. He is sentenced for offence under Section 353 IPC to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years with fine of ₹10,000. For offence under Section 504 IPC, he is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years with fine of ₹2,000. For offence under Section 506 IPC, the accused is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 7 years with fine of ₹25,000. All the sentences would run concurrently," the High Court ruled, leading to the appeal before the apex court..The appeal before the top court was filed through advocate Lzafeer Ahmad BF. Advocate Nizam Pasha also appeared for Ansari. Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad with advocates Ajay Vikram Singh, Priyanka Singh, Sharjeel Ahmad, and Shubham Singh appeared for the State. [Read order]