New Delhi, Aug 1 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday stayed an Allahabad High Court ruling which had dismissed a plea for transferring from Ghazipur to Lucknow the trial of Uttar Pradesh independent legislator Mukhtar Ansari and his parliamentarian brother for allegedly assassinating BJP’s erstwhile legislator Krishnanand Rai in 2005. A bench of Chief Justice K.G Balakrishnan stayed the high court’s December 2007 ruling on a plea by Central Bureau of Investigation, challenging the high court ruling.

The CBI, which probed the murder of the erstwhile Ghazipur legislator in 2005, had sought transfer of the trial on the grounds that the Ansari brothers were threatening witnesses in the case.

They are also suspected to be behind the murders of two crucial witnesses in the case, said CBI in its plea.

The CBI also pointed out to the apex court that as per the statutory provisions, the cases probed by the CBI have to be tried by the designated CBI court situated in Lucknow, but the Ghazipur court is continuing with the trial.

The Ghazipur sessions court was seized of the case as the matter was initially probed by the local police.

Erstwhile BJP legislator Rai had been gunned down along with nine of his associates by the gang of dreaded Uttar Pradesh criminal Munna Bajrangi and his accomplices Atta-ur-Rehman, Vishwas Nepali, Sanjeev Maheshwari, Firdaus, and Azaz on Nov 29, 2005, when they were going in a Qualis vehicle from their village to another village.

As per the CBI, the conspiracy for this murder was hatched by the accused independent MLA Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari, a Samajwadi Party MP.