Abbas Ansari disqualified from UP Assembly after conviction in hate speech case

Lucknow: UP MLA Abbas Ansari, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari has been disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after he was convicted in a hate speech case, official sources said on Sunday.

Abbas Ansari was MLA from Mau assembly constituency. The seat has now been declared vacant, the sources told PTI.Abbas Ansari, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA, was sentenced to two years imprisonment in a 2022 hate speech case by a special MP-MLA court on Saturday.

According to the prosecution, during the last assembly elections, Abbas Ansari, who was contesting as an SBSP candidate from the Mau Sadar seat, had threatened the Mau administration during a public meeting at Paharpur ground on March 3, 2022, saying he will “settle scores and teach them a lesson” after the elections.

Defence lawyer Daroga Singh told PTI videos that Ansari was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 189 (threat to cause harm to public servant), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, caste, place of birth, residence and language and spoiling the harmony), 171F (undue influence in election) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Singh said after hearing both sides, special MP/MLA court Judge K P Singh convicted Abbas Ansari on Saturday and sentenced him to two years each under sections 189 and 153-A, one year under section 506 and six months imprisonment under section 171-F. All the sentences will run simultaneously. Ansari has also been fined Rs 2,000.