Samajwadi Party MP Afzal Ansari has got a big relief from Allahabad High Court. Allahabad High Court has accepted Afzal Ansari's appeal against the sentence under Gangster Act. The court has rejected the appeals of the state government and late MLA Krishnanand Rai's son Piyush Rai to increase the sentence. This order was given by Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh on Monday. The court had reserved the decision on July 4 after a long hearing on all three appeals.

Senior advocates Gopal Chaturvedi, DS Mishra and Upendra Upadhyay, on behalf of Afzal Ansari, said that the gang chart prepared by the prosecution has many members but action under the Gangster Act was taken against only three people. It is also clear from the statement of the investigator in the trial court that this was done due to political animosity. Apart from this, Afzal Ansari has been acquitted in the original case on the basis of which he was sentenced under the Gangster Act and after this Gangster Act case, only two cases were registered against him and those too were related to the Representation of the People Act related to the 2009 and 2014 elections.

The investigating officer himself has said in his statement in the trial court that he was in charge of Mohammadabad police station for four years, let alone a case against Afzal Ansari, no one even made a small complaint. In such a situation, there is no question of increasing Afzal Ansari's sentence, however, according to the law, Gangster Act is not applicable in cases based on political animosity, so the sentence given to Afzal Ansari should be canceled.

Earlier, on the appeal of the state government, Additional Advocate General PC Shrivastava and Additional Government Advocate JK Upadhyay had said in their arguments that the trial court has given less punishment to Afzal Ansari under the Gangster Act. The reason behind the trial court doing so was Afzal Ansari's age (70 years) and his being elected as MP twice and MLA many times, whereas according to the law, the trial court should have looked at the age of the accused at the time when the crime was committed.

Along with this, the trial court has also made Afzal Ansari's election as MP and MLA the basis for giving him less punishment, but this too was not appropriate. Because if those who have the responsibility of shaping the future of the country commit a crime, they should have been given the maximum punishment. Piyush Rai's lawyer Sudisht Kumar completely agreed with the arguments presented by the government.

It is noteworthy that Afzal Ansari has been sentenced to four years imprisonment under the Gangster Act by the Special Court MP/MLA of Ghazipur, against which Afzal Ansari has filed an appeal. In the appeal, a demand has been made to cancel the sentence. A case under the Gangster Act was filed against Mukhtar Ansari, Afzal Ansari and Ejazul Haq on the basis of the MLA Krishnanand Rai murder case. The High Court had earlier refused to stay Afzal Ansari's sentence.

On this, Afzal Ansari appealed in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, while giving a stay on the sentence, directed the High Court to dispose of the appeal by June 30. On the other hand, the state government and Piyush Rai, son of the late MLA Krishnanand Rai, filed an appeal to increase Afzal Ansari's sentence. An objection was filed on behalf of Afzal on the government's appeal.