Today(on April 5th), Supreme Court asks Uttar Pradesh to respond to Abbas Ansari’s plea for attending his late father Mukhtar Ansari’s ‘Fatiha’ ceremony. Ceremony set for April 10th.
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NEW DELHI: Today(on April 5th), the Supreme Court of India intervened by requesting a response from the state of Uttar Pradesh regarding a petition filed by Abbas Ansari. The petition seeks approval for Abbas to attend the upcoming ‘Fatiha’ ceremony commemorating his late father, Mukhtar Ansari, a former gangster turned politician who recently died in prison. The ceremony is set to occur on April 10th.
The bench, led by Justice Surya Kanta, has decided to expedite the matter by scheduling further hearings for April 9, just one day prior to the ‘Fatiha’ ceremony.
Representing Abbas, Advocate Nizam Pasha informed the court about the primary intent of the petition, which originally sought permission for Abbas to attend his father’s last rites. However, given that the ceremony in question has passed, Advocate Pasha requested an amendment to the petition to focus instead on the ‘Fatiha’ ceremony.
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He stated-
“The plea was for seeking permission to attend the last rites of his father Mukhtar Ansari, which as of now has become infructuous.”
Acknowledging the changed circumstances, the Supreme Court directed Advocate Pasha to revise the petition accordingly and to provide a copy to the respondents for their review.
Besides rescheduling the hearing, the Supreme Court also permitted Abbas Ansari to present his plea on the morning of April 9, ensuring thorough exploration of all procedural options before the ‘Fatiha’ ceremony. Abbas, presently held in Kasganj district jail, was unable to participate in his father’s funeral rites.
Mukhtar Ansari’s burial took place at the Kali Bagh burial ground in Ghazipur, alongside his parents, marking the end of a controversial and tumultuous life. He died on March 28 at a hospital in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, under mysterious circumstances that led his family to allege foul play, claiming he was “given poison in the food.”
The hospital’s official statement noted that Ansari was admitted at 8:25 pm on a Thursday and received immediate attention from a nine-doctor team until his passing. The seriousness of these allegations has prompted the formation of a three-member team tasked with conducting a magisterial investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ansari’s death.
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Earlier in April 2023, Mukhtar Ansari had been convicted and sentenced to a decade in prison for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. Furthermore, on March 13 of this year, he received a life sentence in a separate case related to the forgery of documents for acquiring an arms license in 1990.
