Shiv Sena MLA sent to 1 year in jail for assaulting policeman

MLA Harshvardhan Jadhav has assaulted a policeman in 2011

Shiv Sena MLA Harshvardhan Jadhav has been sentenced to one year imprisonment for assaulting a policeman in 2011.

District and Sessions Judge R R Kakani on Friday convicted the MLA from Kannad constituency in Aurangabad district.

The judge sentenced him to one-year imprisonment for each of the offences under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty). The sentences will run concurrently.

The court also slapped a cumulative fine of Rs 10,000 on both the counts.

On January 5, 2011, Jadhav, then an MLA of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), got into an altercation with local police after he allegedly tried to drive into the convoy of the then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who was on a visit to the district.

According to the prosecution, Jadhav broke the police cordon and tried to ram his vehicle into the police officers and when he was stopped by police sub-inspector (PSI) S Kokne, he assaulted the officer.

Jadhav had quit the MNS and won the 2014 Assembly elections on a Shiv Sena ticket.

The court has given one month's time to him to challenge the verdict.