SC Seeks Response from UP Govt on Abbas Ansari’s Plea

The Supreme Court on Friday directed Uttar Pradesh to submit its response to Abbas Ansari’s plea to attend the ‘Fatiha’ ceremony scheduled for April 10, commemorating his father Mukhtar Ansari, who recently passed away in jail.

A bench led by Justice Surya Kant listed the matter for further hearing on April 9, a day before the ceremony.

Advocate Nizam Pasha, representing Abbas Ansari, informed the court that the plea, initially seeking permission to attend his father’s last rites, is now obsolete. Thus, Advocate Pasha requested the court to amend the petition to seek permission for attending the Fatiha.

The apex court instructed Advocate Pasha to amend the petition and serve a copy to the respondents.

The court directed the Registry to list the matter on April 9 after obtaining appropriate orders from the Chief Justice of India.

Additionally, the petitioner was given the liberty to mention his plea on the morning of the same day. Abbas Ansari, incarcerated in Kasganj district jail, was unable to attend his father’s last rites.

Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was buried at the Kali Bagh burial ground in Ghazipur last Saturday, near his parents’ graves.

Mukhtar Ansari passed away at a Banda hospital in Uttar Pradesh on March 28, amidst family claims of food poisoning. The hospital’s official release stated that Ansari was brought in around 8:25 pm on Thursday and was attended to by a team of nine doctors before his demise. Concurrently, a three-member team has been constituted to conduct a magisterial investigation into his death. In April 2023, Mukhtar Ansari was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai by an MP-MLA court. He received a life sentence on March 13 this year for a case involving the use of forged documents to obtain an arms license in 1990.