Samajwadi Party MLA granted bail in Kanpur house arson case after two years but high court refuses to stay his conviction:
By Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted bail to former MLA of Samajwadi Party (SP) Irfan Solanki in connection with the 2022 Kanpur house arson case.
The HC, however, refused to stay with Solanki’s conviction in this case.
The HC had reserved its order on Nov 8 which was pronounced on Thursday. Solanki had lost his membership of the Assembly after a special court of Kanpur had awarded him seven years’ imprisonment.
This aligns with a Supreme Court ruling that stipulates termination of MP or MLA status for sentences surpassing two years.
Even after the pronouncement of this judgment, Solanki will continue to remain disqualified as MLA and will continue to remain out of the Assembly as the HC has refused to stay his conviction in this case.
Though Solanki was granted bail in this case he will not be set free as, according to his counsel Imran Ullah, he is booked in other criminal cases also and has yet to be granted bail in those cases.
While granting bail but simultaneously refusing to stay the conviction of appellant Solanki, a division bench, comprising Justice Rajiv Gupta and Justice Surendra Singh–1, observed, “It is true that this court has the power to stay the conviction.
However, such power is to be exercised in exceptional circumstances in a case where the court is convinced that not staying the conviction would lead to injustice and irreversible consequences”.
The court added, “We find that the wider opinion is that persons charged with crimes ought to be disqualified from contesting elections to public offices.
In the backdrop of the said circumstance and the settled principle of law laid down by the apex court, we think that the appellant, who has been charged with serious offenses and has a long criminal history, whose bail has also been rejected by this court and even by the apex court, we do not find it to be a case of stay of conviction.
Keeping in view its wider social impact for staying the conviction and having no exceptional case been pointed out, we think that merely by pleading that appellant Irfan Solanki by his conviction stands disqualified as per the Representation of People Act, 1951 is no ground to suspend the conviction.”
The case pertains to the setting on fire house of one Fatima of Defence Colony in the Jajmau area in 2022 allegedly by Solanki, the then MLA of Kanpur Cantt, and others in a bid to grab the plot.
They later surrendered before the police and were booked under the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.
Subsequently, the special court of Kanpur had convicted and awarded a sentence of seven years imprisonment to Irfan Solanki, the then MLA of Kanpur Cant, along with four others in its judgment dated June 7.
Solanki filed the present criminal appeal before the HC against this judgment. He had requested the court to release him on bail during the pendency of this criminal appeal. Along with the bail plea, Solanki had also filed an application for sa tay of sentence.
Earlier, while representing the appellant, his counsels argued that the case relies on circumstantial evidence without clear proof of which the accused initiated the fire.
They maintained that political rivalry motivated the charges against Solanki. Besides, the punishment awarded is seven years and he has already spent two years in jail. Solanki is currently lodged in Maharajganj district jail.
On the other hand, the additional advocate general, representing the state govt, opposed the bail saying that the prosecution had established the guilt beyond reasonable doubt, warranting the conviction and making the appellant ineligible for release.
