Meerut (Uttar Pradesh): Police on Monday arrested Samajwadi Party MLA from Meerut Rafiq Ansari for not appearing before the Allahabad High Court despite non-bailable warrants being issued against him in a 1995 case, officials said.
Ansari was arrested from the Zaidpur area of Barabanki district and produced before an MP/MLA court here which sent him to 14-day judicial custody, they said. Superintendent of Police (City) Ayush Vikram Singh said Ansari had gone "missing" for the past few days and raids were being conducted to find him.
Several non-bailable warrants were issued against him by the high court but he did not appear before the court, the SP said.
The case against Ansari was registered under Section 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Indian Penal Code at Civil Lines police station here in 1995. The arrested MLA was accused of causing traffic jams and damaging property.
The high court had ordered that Ansari be arrested and produced before it. Police had formed a team to arrest the SP MLA, Singh said. Another police officer said Ansari was produced before the MP/MLA court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Nadeem Anwar under tight security around 9 pm. The court sent him to 14-day judicial custody.
Earlier this month, the high court had refused to set aside the criminal proceedings against Ansari, saying that he failed to appear before the trial court despite the issuance of around 100 non-bailable warrants against him between 1997 and 2015.
