New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice on a bail plea filed by mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's son Abbas Ansari, who was booked by the Uttar Pradesh police for allegedly procuring foreign guns on the pretext of shooting competitions.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta sought the response of the state government within a period of four weeks in the matter.

In November 2023, the Allahabad High Court had rejected the regular bail application filed by Abbas, saying that he imported a pistol, a rifle and 6 barrels in violation of the import permit issued by the NRAI (National Rifle Association of India) besides importing two barrels of prohibited bores and a pistol with 3 spare barrels without permit.

Further, the high court had noted that Abbas got a revolver endorsed and had 4,431 cartridges in his possession.

A bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi of the HC had said that Abbas -- being a sitting MLA representing the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party -- is expected to pay more respect to the laws of the land as compared to any other person.

Allegedly, Abbas -- claiming to be an accomplished shooter -- projected that he had got the arms licence issued in Lucknow transferred to Delhi and continued to use both the licences issued in two different states on two different UIDs.

In 2019, an FIR was registered against Abbas at the Mahanagar police station in Lucknow under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 30 of the Arms Act. Later, the probe into the matter was handed over to the UP STF.

The investigation revealed that Abbas, using Mukhtar Ansari's international contact, allegedly procured sophisticated weapons from Sylvania in the name of shooting competitions, but the weapons were used in illegal activities, and not in any competition.