BSP's Afzal Ansari disqualified from parliament following 4-yr jail sentence

New Delhi: Afzal Ansari of the BSP was found guilty and given a four-year prison sentence in an abduction and murder case by a court in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, which resulted in his disqualification as a Lok Sabha member.

Ansari, a member of the Lok Sabha from Ghazipur, was given a four-year prison sentence on Saturday by an MP/MLA court. His brother, the criminal-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, was also found guilty in the same case and received a 10-year prison term.

The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005, along with the kidnapping and murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.

"Consequent upon his conviction...Afzal Ansari, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Ghazipur Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh, stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 29 April 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951," according to a Lok Sabha secretariat notification.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently lost his Lok Sabha membership after he was convicted in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced to two years in jail.

With PTI inputs