SC stays HC order convicting Ansari for threatening jailer in 2003

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Allahabad High Court order convicting former Uttar Pradesh MLA Mukhtar Ansari and sentencing him to a seven-year jail term for intimidating and threatening a jailer in 2003.

A division bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath issued a notice to the UP government seeking its response on Ansari's appeal.

The trial court had acquitted Ansari, but the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC last year reversed the trial court order and sent him to jail for seven years. Ansari approached the SC challenging the HC order. The case dates to 2003 when Lucknow prison jailer SK Awasthi registered an FIR with the police alleging he was threatened for ordering the frisking of people who came to meet Ansari.