Mau MLA Abbas Ansari disqualified from UP Assembly after conviction in hate speech case
Abbas Ansari, an MLA from Uttar Pradesh's Mau constituency and son of the gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, has been disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly after a court convicted him in a hate speech case, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday.
On Saturday, Chief Judicial Magistrate KP Singh sentenced Abbas Ansari, a member of the Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, to two years in prison. The court held that while the Constitution granted the right to freedom of expression, it was not unrestricted.
'No one can say anything, anywhere, anytime,' Live Law quoted Singh as having said. 'There is no place for hate or provocative speech in the political field, and it becomes serious when the intention is to create disorder on the basis of religion and thus, influencing elections directly or indirectly.'
The case pertained to a statement Abbas Ansari made during an election rally in Mau in March 2022, in which he told government officials that he would 'settle scores and teach them a lesson' after the elections, PTI reported.
The Election Commission had imposed a 24-hour campaign ban on him after the remark, Maktoob Media reported.
A first information report was filed against Abbas Ansari under the Indian Penal Code sections related to punishment for criminal intimidation, punishment for undue influence or personation at an election, obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions, threat of injury to public servant, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, and punishment of criminal conspiracy.
Apart from Abbas Ansari, the FIR also named more than 150 others, including his brother Umar Ansari and his election agent Mansoor Ahmed Ansari, according to Maktoob Media.
The court on Saturday stated that Abbas Ansari had been found guilty of delivering a provocative speech, which was a serious offence.
'If senior officials appointed in the district, who are under the direct control of the Election Commission during the Model Code of Conduct period, are threatened with paybacks, then it certainly creates an indirect sense of fear among the voters as well,' Live Law quoted the bench as having said.
A day later, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly issued a notification stating that Abbas Ansari had been disqualified, the Hindustan Times reported.
Pradeep Dubey, the principal secretary of the Assembly, also said that the Mau seat had been declared vacant. Dubey added that the Election Commission had been informed about the vacancy and that it would issue a notification for holding an election.
Abbas Ansari's father, Mukhtar Ansari, had a total of 65 cases against him and had been in jail since 2005 after he surrendered to the police in connection with a communal riot that took place in the town of Mau.
On March 14 last year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court for MPs and MLAs in the 34-year-old Ghazipur fake arms licence case. This was his seventh conviction over 18 months.
The gangster-turned-politician died in custody at the Banda Medical College in Uttar Pradesh on March 28, 2024. Hospital authorities said he died of a cardiac arrest.
A week before his death, Mukhtar Ansari had told a court in the Barabanki district that his health had deteriorated after he was served food allegedly laced with poison inside the prison, reported PTI.
He had alleged that he was poisoned 40 days earlier as well.
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