Cong leader gets 1-year RI for defaming ex-MP Assembly officer

Former Congress MLA Kalpana Parulekar was today given one-year rigorous imprisonment by a court here which found her guilty in a defamation case filed by the then Madhya Pradesh Assembly secretary Bhagwandev Israni in 2009.
The court of Judicial Magistrate Sandhya Manoj Shrivastava also imposed a fine of Rs 2000 on Parulekar after examining the material on record.
The court granted Parulekar bail on her plea, after delivering the order.
The defamation case was filed against the former legislator from Mahidpur in Ujjain district in 2009 by Israni.
His complaint stated that Parulekar had tarnished his image by levelling false allegations against him by holding a press conference on the premises of the state Legislative Assembly on September 23, 2009 in Bhopal.

The case was registered against Parulekar in 2010.

At the press conference, Parulekar had said that Israni's educational qualifications, on the basis of which he got the job, were bogus and doctored.
When contacted today, Israni, who had retired as Principal Secretary of the Assembly Secretariat, told PTI that "truth has won."
"She (Parulekar) could not produce even a single witness. Her allegations have been proved totally false. This is for the first time that a politician has been punished following an initiative of a bureaucrat," he said.
Meanwhile, Parulekar said she will file an appeal in the sessions court against her conviction.

"I will continue to fight against the wrongdoers and corruption, come what may," she added.