Local UP court sends BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to jail; bail granted

The MoS for Parliamentary Affairs has been sentenced to one year in jail for violating prohibitory orders during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls

A local court here, on Wedn-esday sent Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs  Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to one year in jail for violating prohibitory orders during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The minister was later granted bail.

The conviction will not mean Naqvi is disqualified from his Rajya Sabha membership, as the offences are not covered by the “statutory disqualifications” specified in the Representation of the People Act.

Judicial magistrate Manish Kumar held Naqvi guilty under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of Indian Penal Code, Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure. Eighteen others were also convicted. Naqvi was later granted bail.

The case relates to a demonstration by Bharatiya Janata Party workers led by Naqvi at Patwai in Rampur parliamentary constituency during campaigning in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He  allegedly breached the prohibitory orders in force and barged into a police station.

They were demonstrating against the arrest of Rampur BJP chief and seizure of a vehicle of the party. Police had lodged an FIR against 200 people, including Naqvi.