Authorities apprehended Samajwadi Party MLA Rafiq Ansari from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, in Lucknow on Monday for failing to comply with a non-bailable warrant issued against him in a 1995 criminal case by the Allahabad High Court.
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) spearheaded the arrest operation, assembling a team led by the Circle Officer (CO) Civil Line to apprehend Ansari.
The warrant, which stemmed from a pending criminal case lodged under Sections 147, 436, and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was challenged in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, MP-MLA, Meerut.
The case, initiated in September 1995, implicated 35 to 40 unidentified individuals, with a charge sheet subsequently filed against 22 accused parties.
Following this, the authorities presented a supplementary charge sheet, leading the concerned court to take cognizance of the matter in August 1997.
Despite due process, the court issued a non-bailable warrant against Ansari on December 12, 1997, after he failed to appear.
Subsequently, the court issued a total of 101 non-bailable warrants against him.
Efforts to secure his presence in court, including the attachment process under Section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), proved futile as Ansari continued to evade judicial proceedings.
His legal representative had contested the warrants, citing the acquittal of 22 co-accused in a judgment dated May 15, 1997, as grounds for nullification of action against the MLA.
However, the court instructed the Director-General of Police (DGP) to ensure the enforcement of the outstanding non-bailable warrant issued by the trial court against Rafiq Ansari.
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