The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted bail to former Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki but rejected his plea seeking a stay on conviction in a 2022 case of setting a house on fire in Kanpur.

A bench of Justices Rajiv Gupta and Surendra Singh also dismissed the appeal of the state government seeking enhancement of sentence.

Solanki had lost his membership in the state assembly after a special court in Kanpur on June 7, 2024, sentenced him and four others to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for setting a woman's house on fire in the Jajmau area.

Solanki was MLA from Sishamau assembly seat in Kanpur.

Meanwhile, his wife Naseem Solanki, who has been fielded by the Samajwadi Party for the November 20 bypoll to the Sishamau assembly seat, welcomed the high court's decision.

Talking to PTI over the phone, Naseem Solanki said the order has increased the family's hope for justice and made it clear that her husband is "innocent". "The decision of the high court is completely accepted." On the high court not accepting the plea to stay the sentence, she said, "We will move the Supreme Court to get the sentence stayed." "Whenever I meet people to seek votes, they say that my husband is innocent and the high court's decision has also put its seal that Irfan is innocent," Naseem Solanki said.

She said the family has faith in God and the judiciary.

Irfan Solanki's mother Khursheeda has also welcomed the court's order. The case against Irfan Solanki is based on false allegations, she claimed.

Irfan Solanki, his younger brother Rizwan and three others were sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment on June 7 in connection with setting fire to a woman's house in an alleged bid to grab her land.

Police had booked Solanki, his brother Rizwan and about four dozen others for rioting and arson about two years ago.

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