Ghazipur‘s Member of Parliament, Afzal Ansari, on Monday was disqualified from his position following his conviction in a 2007 criminal case.

The Bahujan Samaj Party parliamentarian was sentenced to four years in prison on Saturday, in a Ghazipur court judgement that also saw his brother, gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, sentenced to ten years in prison. The Ansaris have also been fined a collective Rs 6 lakh by the court.

“Consequent upon his conviction by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, M.P./M.L.A. Court, Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh in Special Trial/980/2012, Shri 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,” reads a Lok Sabha notification.

The Ansari brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in 2007 in Mohammadabad, two years after they were accused of orchestrating the murder of former BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai.

Rai was killed in a shootout along with six others over alleged political rivalry. His murder was one of the main grounds for the police to initiate action against the brothers and their aides under the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.

In 2006, the investigation into Rai’s murder was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In 2019, a CBI court acquitted the Ansari brothers and all the others accused in the case, primarily due to lack of evidence as all the witnesses had turned hostile. However, the case under the Gangsters Act remained.