The Supreme Court on Friday declined to quash an FIR registered against gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s son Umar Ansari in Uttar Pradesh, for alleged hate speech made during the 2022 state assembly poll campaign.
"You will have to face the trial," a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Pankaj Mithal told the petitioner.
The bench said the court will not quash the FIR in the case where the high court has refused to grant him any relief.
Ansari’s counsel said that the alleged remark was not made by him.
Declining to consider his plea, the top court said its order will not come in the way when courts consider the plea during the subsequent trial and other proceedings.
Umar Ansari, along with his MLA brother Abbas Ansari, is facing criminal prosecution in the hate speech case and he is charged with sharing the dais in a rally in Mau district where his brother allegedly threatened government officials.
In 2022, Abbas Ansari won the Mau Sadar seat in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as a candidate of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP)-Samajwadi Party alliance.
Published 28 July 2023, 08:54 IST
