New Delhi: The political fate of Afzal Ansari, who is the brother of the late gangster-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, will be decided on Thursday by the Allahabad High Court. The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur seat is facing a trial in the death of Krishna Nand Rai, the then BJP MLA from Mohammadabad. The HC will declare the verdict today. If Ansari gets more than two years of imprisonment, his candidature from the Ghazipur seat will be cancelled until he gets a stay order from the higher courts. 

According to current laws, individuals convicted and sentenced to a prison term of two years, or more are automatically disqualified from contesting elections for six years following their release. Earlier, the MP-MLA court had imposed the four-year sentence on Afzal and now he is contesting this decision in the HC. 

The Gangster Case Against Afzal 

In a gunned-down murder on November 29, 2005, in UP’s Basniya, seven individuals, including the then BJP MLA Krishna Nand Rai, who had previously defeated Afzal in the 2002 elections, were killed.  

Following the massacre, the Ansari brothers with others were implicated in the conspiracy. Although acquitted in the case, Afzal and Mukhtar faced legal ramifications when the police filed a gangster case against them in 2007, stemming from the same incident.  

The decision in the matter came on April 29, 2023, when the MP-MLA court delivered its verdict. The court sentenced Afzal to four years and Mukhtar to ten years in prison, followed by termination from parliamentary membership. 

SC Restores Parliamentary Membership 

On December 14, 2023, the Supreme Court suspended Afzal’s sentence indefinitely and restored his membership. 

Afzal, who was released on bail on the orders of the High Court, filed an application in the Supreme Court and argued that since he had been acquitted in the MLA murder case, the lower court’s decision under the gangster was unacceptable.