In the legal enclave of New Delhi, the Supreme Court, on the contemplative Tuesday, made astute observations regarding the plethora of litigations directed towards the notorious political figure, Mukhtar Ansari. It unequivocally deemed him a “dreaded criminal” during the adjudication of Ansari’s plea challenging an adjudication by the Allahabad High Court. This particular ruling had meted out a five-year incarceration to Ansari in connection to an archival case spanning 24 years.
The legal representation emanated from the sagacious Senior Advocate Garima Prasad, an emissary for the Uttar Pradesh government. Prasad expounded before a bench, presided over by the erudite justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal, underscoring Ansari’s orchestration of “a reign of terror” within the state. The bench sagely acknowledged that Ansari currently languishes behind the bars.
Within the confines of this judicial discourse, the apex court astutely noted that Ansari bears the weight of numerous cases against him, conclusively deeming him a “dreaded criminal.” The hearing on Ansari’s plea, a mélange of legal intricacies, found itself adjourned by the sagacious bench on that Tuesday.
This legal saga, extending back to October in the bygone year, saw the apex court soliciting a response from the Uttar Pradesh government in response to Ansari’s appeal against the high court’s decree. A pivotal moment unfolded in September of the same year when the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a jurisprudential upheaval, overturned Ansari’s erstwhile acquittal, pronouncing a five-year incarceration under the imprimatur of the Gangster Act.
The high court, not content with mere judgment, levied a pecuniary penalty of Rs 50,000 upon Ansari, effectively annulling the acquittal order promulgated by a specialized MP-MLA court in the annus horribilis of 2020. The genesis of this legal imbroglio traces back to an FIR lodged with Lucknow’s Hazratganj police in the annus mirabilis of 1999, under the aegis of the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. An exoneration by a special court in 2020 proved ephemeral, prompting the state to proffer an appeal against this judicial reprieve in the consequential year of 2021.