Supreme Court allows Abbas Ansari to virtually attend last rites of his father

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Uttar Pradesh Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Abbas Ansari to use video-conference facility to take part in the religious ceremony to mark the 40th day of the death of his late father Mukhtar Ansari [Abbas Ansari v. Union of India and Another]..After noting t the ceremony is scheduled today, a Division Bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan directed the State of Uttar Pradesh to ensure that Ansari is allowed to attend the same virtually, either in jail or in a secure location outside of jail."This is not adversarial litigation. Treat this matter with some compassion. This man has lost his father. Now he himself is in conflict with the law. But this is not adversarial litigation," Justice Kant orally told Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad appearing for the State..The matter was directed to be listed for further hearing on Wednesday after advocate Nizamuddin Pasha informed the Court that Ansari's family may organise some private ceremonies for remembrance of his late father since he was not able to attend his father’s funeral.The Court asked Pasha ana Advocates Lzafeer Ahmad BF, Sidharth Kaushik and Awstika Das, who were appearing for Ansari, to come back on the next date of hearing with a timely request for attending any other upcoming ritual/ceremony..The Supreme Court had earlier allowed Ansari to attend the 'Fatiha' ceremony of Mukhtar Ansari subject to strict conditions. .Supreme Court grants bail to Umar Ansari in Model Code of Conduct violation case.On May 3, the Allahabad High Court had denied bail to Ansari in a case alleging that his wife had been visiting him in jail without complying with the formalities.The Court said that it was not inclined to grant Ansari bail at this stage as the eye-witnesses and policemen were yet to be examined in the case..Ansari's father Mukhtar Ansari had died at the Rani Durgavati Medical College in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, after suffering a cardiac arrest.On March 13 this year, a special court in Varanasi had sentenced him to life imprisonment in a fake arms license case.He was convicted in several other cases including a kidnapping case, a 1999 case under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters Act, the 1991 murder of Awadhesh Rai (the brother of a Congress leader) and a 2003 case for intimidating a jailer by pointing a pistol at him.On March 21, he had had reportedly penned a letter to the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Mau, alleging that he was being poisoned by the jail authorities in Banda. His family has alleged foul play in his death.