BJP MLA gets two years in jail, may lose House seat
Defence lawyer Brij Pal Singh said the MLA filed a bail plea after the sentencing. “The court granted him bail. We will file an appeal against the judgment,” the lawyer added.
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BJP MLA Sureshwar SinghBJP MLA Sureshwar Singh may face disqualification from his membership in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly after the MP-MLA court in Bahraich handed down two years of imprisonment to him and imposed a Rs 2,500 fine in a 21-year-old case of criminal intimidation and deterring public servant from discharging his duty.
Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) Anupam Dixit examined five prosecution witnesses during the trial. “The court sentenced MLA Sureshwar Singh to two years of imprisonment and imposed a Rs 2,500 fine on him on Thursday. The judgment was, however, made public today (Friday),” Bahraich government counsel Tabassum said.
Singh, a two-time MLA from the Mahasi constituency in Bahraich district, has been convicted under sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the government counsel added.
Defence lawyer Brij Pal Singh said the MLA filed a bail plea after the sentencing. “The court granted him bail. We will file an appeal against the judgment,” the lawyer added.
The jail term could lead to his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly as under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1951, any public representative sentenced to two-year imprisonment or more is disqualified from the date of sentence and is barred from contesting elections for the next six years after serving the sentence.
According to the prosecution, the case of September 2, 2002, when a woman lodged at a protection home in Lucknow was brought to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s (SDM) office to record her statement in a case and no one was allowed to enter the SDM’s room till the recording.
“The accused (Sureshwar Singh), however, forcibly entered the SDM’s room. When he was asked to leave, he misbehaved with officials. He was also accused of issuing threats while leaving the SDM’s room after an argument,” a prosecuting officer said.
The prosecution said Mahasi tehsil SDM Lal Mani Mishra had filed a case against the Mahasi MLA at the Hardi police station, alleging that Singh had barged into his office and created obstruction in government work. The complainant alleged that the MLA misbehaved with him and threatened him, the prosecution said.
Police said Singh had gone to the then SDM’s office in September 2002 for a public matter when he had a clash with the officer over some issue, following which an FIR was lodged.
According to the order, if the MLA fails to pay the fine, he will have to serve seven more days in jail. In September 2019, a sessions court in Bahraich acquitted the MLA and three others for the want of proof in a 1995 triple-murder case. However, his elder brother Brijeshwar Singh and four others were sentenced to life imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them.
Four MLAs who won the last Assembly elections have lost their membership in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, so far. -PTI Inputs
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