The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld its earlier decision granting interim bail to Uttar Pradesh MLA Abbas Ansari, the son of late gangster Mukhtar Ansari, in a case filed under the state’s Gangsters Act, PTI reported.
An FIR was registered on August 31, 2024, at the Kotwali Karvi police station in Chitrakoot district under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, accusing Ansari and others of extortion and assault.
On March 7 last year, the Supreme Court granted Ansari six weeks of interim bail in the case.
On Tuesday, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for Ansari, and regularised the interim bail granted earlier in the case, PTI reported.
The relief from the top court in March 2025 had paved the way for Ansari's release from Kasganj jail. He had been granted bail in all other criminal cases against him.
The bench had imposed certain conditions and later relaxed a few of them, including that he could not leave Lucknow without the investigating officer's nod.
Ansari was taken into custody in connection with other criminal cases on November 4, 2022, and was later arrested under the Gangsters Act on September 6, 2024, PTI reported.
While granting him relief in March last year, the bench observed that he had secured bail in all other cases except the one under the Gangsters Act. On December 18, 2024, the Allahabad High Court dismissed Ansari’s bail plea in this matter.
Navneet Sachan, Niyaz Ansari, Faraz Khan, and Shahbaz Alam Khan are the other accused in the case.
