A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh’s Datia, Rajendra Bharti, in a bank fraud case related to forging records to receive illegal interest payments.
“Suffice it to note that cheating was indeed committed against the bank when, based on a forged tenure of the FD, interest at a much higher rate was withdrawn annually until 2011, even after the initial three year period of the FD … Normally, upon the completion of the FD tenure, a new FD is issued by the banks. However, in this case, instead of doing so, forgery was committed,” said Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh of Rouse Avenue Court.
Along with Bharti, former bank accountant Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati was convicted, among other offences, for criminal conspiracy.
Bharti won from Datia in 2023 and twice before that — in 1985 on a Congress ticket, and in 1998 as a Samajwadi Party candidate.
In August 1998, a fixed deposit of ₹10 lakh was made in the name of Bharti’s mother Savitri Devi Shyam, at the District Cooperative Rural Development Bank, Datia, for a period of three years at an annual interest rate of 13.5%.
Between 1998 and 2001, Bharti also served as the Chairman of the bank’s Board of Directors. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Shyam Sundar Shyam Jan Sahyog Evam Samudayik Vikas Sansthan, headed by his mother during that time.
The case, which originated in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia, was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in October last year.
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As per the prosecution, there was a quid pro quo relationship between Bharti and Prajapati wherein the latter forged documents benefiting Bharti’s family trust in exchange for out of turn promotions from clerk to senior branch manager. Proceedings against Bharti’s mother, Savitri, were abated after she died in 2019.
Bharti had argued that the case against him was “politically motivated”.
“The sum and substance of the above discussion is that accused Bharti and accused Prajapati, along with Savitri Devi and possibly other unknown persons, entered into a criminal conspiracy … to cheat the complainant bank … by continuing to draw interest at a much higher rate beyond 2011…,” the court said in its 95 page judgement.
“The argument by Bharti that he is politically targeted or that the prosecution is politically motivated is all speculation. He has failed to prove any such political motives or false implications… it is a case of forgery of bank documents and cheating the bank from 1998 to 2011…,” the court said.
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Arguments on the quantum of sentence will commence on Thursday.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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