New Delhi:Apprehending an encounter, UP MLA Abbas Ansari on Friday urged the Supreme Court to allow him to appear virtually in the trial court proceedings in a case registered against him under the Gangsters Act. Ansari is the son of late gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari.
The matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Ansari, contended that his client had been appearing virtually before the court from jail in Kasganj but the facility was stopped. The apex court was hearing Ansari's bail plea in the case pertaining to running a gang in state's Chitrakoot district. Ansari is an MLA from Mau constituency representing Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party. During the hearing, Sibal urged the bench to allow his client to appear through video-conferencing in the court proceedings. “Nowadays a lot of things happen between jail and court. People get killed while being taken to court from jail”, said Sibal. The bench told Sibal that there were no pleadings made in his petition relating to virtual hearing, and asked him to move the high court.
Sibal said it would mean by the time the matter was taken by the high court for hearing, Ansari would have been physically taken to the trial court. The bench was informed that Ansari’s bail was dismissed by the high court in the case, where the FIR was identical to the case and was quashed by the apex court last year. “This FIR has identical averments with the case that was quashed by the court. My client is in jail for one-and-a-half years in this case. Kindly grant him bail”, said Sibal. He contended that he was being accused of running a criminal gang in Chitrakoot, which was 450 kilometer from Kasganj, where he is currently lodged in jail.
Additional solicitor general K M Nataraj, appearing for the UP government, said Ansari had moved the top court for bail in the case but withdrew the plea with a liberty to move the high court. Nataraj submitted that his bail plea was dismissed by the high court and now he is again before the Supreme Court. Nataraj requested the bench to allow him to file a response to this plea. The bench asked the state government to file its response in two weeks.
The apex court said if Ansari were to move the high court regarding appearing virtually before the court then it should be taken up urgently. The high court in December, last year, had declined to entertain his bail plea in the case in which he and a few others were accused of forming a gang for financial and other benefits. An FIR was lodged on August 31, 2024 at Kotwali Karvi Police Station in Chitrakoot district under section 2 and 3 of UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 against Ansari, and others.
