Arms license case: MLA Ansari declared proclaimed offender

“The court has declared Abbas Ansari a proclaimed offender. To execute the court order, a police team went to Abbas’s parental house in Ghazipur. Police pasted the court order at the residence and also made announcements in the area about it,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Lucknow, S M Qasim Abidi.

He added that the court fixed August 26 as the next date for hearing.

Sources said that if Abbas remains absconding, the police are likely to move court seeking directives to attach his properties.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday reserved its order on Abbas’s anticipatory bail plea.

Abbas won the recent Assembly election from Mau Sadar seat. Abbas, who contested on Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party ticket, got 1,23,860 votes.

Mukhtar Ansari represented the Mau Sadar seat five times before deciding to field his son Abbas from there. Mukhtar is lodged at Banda district jail.

Two days ago, the police conducted searches at around 10 places across the state, including Lucknow, in search of Abbas. Raids were conducted on the basis of information about his presence. The police, however, failed to locate him. The police have filed chargesheet against Abbas Ansari in the case, said DCP Abidi.

In October last year, the Lucknow police registered an FIR at Mahanagar police station against Abbas on the basis of an inquiry report. The inquiry team found that Abbas had purchased more than one weapon on an arms licence issued in his name in 2012. The license was issued on Abbas’s Lucknow address at Nishatganj.

The inquiry team also found that in 2015, Abbas got his arms licence transferred to his Delhi’ (Vasant Kunj) address. An FIR was registered against Abbas under IPC section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and Arms Act.

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The police searched Ansari’s residence in Delhi and recovered six firearms – four guns and a rifle – and around 4,000 cartridges. A few of the seized firearms are foreign-made, said police.

The police have now invoked IPC sections 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record] ) against Abbas.