Court awards 6-month jail term to AAP MLA for assault during poll campaign

AAP MLA Som Dutt was Thursday awarded six-month jail term by a Delhi court for assaulting a man with a base ball bat during the 2015 Assembly election campaign, and said he committed the offence knowing its gravity as a legislator.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal also imposed a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on Dutt while noting that he was a Member of Legislative Assembly of Delhi before the incident and contesting the upcoming assembly elections.

"It means he is public representative. He has committed the offence knowing its gravity and consequences," the court said.

It noted that the incident did not take place on the spur of the moment but was a premeditated assault by a base ball bat.

"The convict was a law maker and therefore by the very nature of his position has to be a law abiding citizen. We as a society cannot be used to such crimes. The complainant suffered fracture of fibula which is an important part of the body. I can realise the pain and agony suffered by him by this attack," the judge said.

The court, however, granted him bail on a personal and surety bond of Rs 10,000 till August 5, 2019 after he wished to appeal against his conviction.

The court further said that when an influential person breaks the law, there is an impression in his mind that he may break through it, in one way or the other.

"But that is not the case always. Respect for the law is the first condition for a civilised society. Nobody has more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make it. Law without justice is a wound without cure," the judge said, while refusing to grant the benefit of probation to the convict.

Dutt, the legislator from the Sadar Bazar constituency here, was held guilty under sections 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt without provocation), 341 (wrongful restraint), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly ) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"There is no doubt that on January 10, 2015 at around 8 pm, Som Dutt, along with his 50 supporters, went to flat No. 13 where the complainant was present. The complainant was beaten and assaulted by the accused and his associates due to which he suffered grievous injury," the court had said while convicting Dutt.

An FIR was lodged against Dutt in 2015 at the Gulabi Bagh police station in North Delhi on the allegation that the MLA and around 50 of his supporters, while campaigning in the locality, had come to the house of complainant Sanjeev Rana.

The prosecutor had alleged that when the complainant objected, the MLA allegedly hit him in his legs with a baseball bat and his supporters dragged him out on the road and started beating him, causing grievous injury.

Dutt's counsel had refuted the arguments of the prosecutor saying the MLA and his supporters were peacefully campaigning in the society and it was the complainant who started quarrelling with Dutt in an inebriated state, on which a cross FIR was also registered by the legislator.

The MLA's counsel had also said that Rana has neither named nor identified any other person to charge him for the offence of rioting.

The court has also framed charges against Rana in the cross case filed against him by the MLA for allegedly entering into a scuffle with him and his party members while they were campaigning for the elections.

Dutt had also alleged that while doing so, Rana, in an inebriated state, hurled abuses at women party members and pushed one of the associates towards barbed wires due to which he suffered injury.