Mau MLA Abbas Ansari disqualified from UP Assembly after conviction in hate speech case

Abbas Ansari, an MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Mau constituency and son of the gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, has been disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly after a court convicted him in a hate speech case, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday.

On Saturday, Chief Judicial Magistrate KP Singh sentenced Abbas Ansari, a member of the Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, to two years in prison. The court held that while the Constitution granted the right to freedom of expression, it was not unrestricted.

“No one can say anything, anywhere, anytime,” Live Law quoted Singh as having said. “There is no place for hate or provocative speech in the political field, and it becomes serious when the intention is to create disorder on the basis of religion and thus, influencing elections directly or indirectly.”

The case pertained to a statement Abbas Ansari made during an election rally in Mau in March 2022, in which he told government officials that he would “settle scores and teach them a lesson” after the elections, PTI reported.

The Election Commission had imposed a 24-hour campaign ban on him after the remark, Maktoob Media reported.

A first information report was filed against Abbas Ansari under the Indian Penal Code sections related to punishment for criminal intimidation, punishment for undue influence or personation at an election, obstructing...

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