Bihar Assembly disqualifies RJD MLA after court awards him

RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who was recently awarded life imprisonment by a court here for the rape of a minor girl, has been disqualified from the Bihar Assembly, a notification issued on Wednesday said.

According to the notification issued by the Vidhan Sabha secretariat, Yadav has been disqualified with effect from December 15, the date on which he was convicted by the Special Court here for MPs, MLAs and MLCs.

The court had announcement the quantum of sentence on December 21.

Five others, including four women, were also awarded punishments in the two-year-old rape case.

With the disqualification of Yadav, who was suspended from the RJD in February, 2016 shortly after being named an accused in the case, the total number of the party's MLAs has come down to 79.

Yadav represented Nawada in the state Assembly and he is the second RJD MLA to have been disqualified in recent times.

Last month, Dehri MLA Mohd Ilyas Hussain had lost his membership on account of his conviction in a corruption case by a CBI court in Ranchi.

The RJD had won 80 seats in the 2015 Assembly elections and improved its tally in May this year when it wrested the Jokihat seat from the JD(U).