The Supreme Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Umar Ansari, son of late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansar, in a criminal case involving an alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Granting bail to Umar Ansari, a bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra noted that other accused in the case have been granted bail and the offending statement attributed to Ansari is the matter for trial.
The court asked Ansari to participate in the trial of the case, as the Uttar Pradesh government objected to his plea for anticipatory bail and told the bench that he must first surrender before the trial court and then seek bail.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Umar Ansari, told the bench that other accused in the case have already been granted bail in the case.
Mukhtar Ansari, who was undergoing incarceration, died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh on March 28.
Umar Ansari was booked for delivering a provocative speech against the Mau district administration while the model code of conduct was in place. Earlier the Allahabad High Court had declined anticipatory bail to him in the same case.
He approached the top court against the High Court’s December 2023 order. Rejecting Umar Ansari’s plea for anticipatory bail in the case on December 19, 2023, the High Court had said that looking at the facts and the circumstances of the case, the offence is made out.
The FIR in the case was lodged in March 2022 at Kotwali police station in Mau district against Abbas Ansari, Umar Ansari, and others.
It was alleged in the FIR that on March 3, 2022, at Pahadpura ground, Abbas Ansari, Umar Ansari, and organiser Mansoor Ahmad Ansari in a public meeting called for settling a score with the Mau administration.
It is a case of violation of the election code of conduct.