BJP 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