HC grants bail to ex-BSP MLA

The Allahabad High Court has granted bail on medical grounds to former BSP MLA Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the rape of a minor girl in Banda district.
The Lucknow bench of the high court also directed him to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the victim.
Justice Sudhir Kumar Saxena gave this order on an appeal filed by Dwivedi, who submitted that he is old and infirm and had a political carrier which stands ruined.
A special CBI court in June had sentenced the former MLA from Banda's Naraini constituency in connection with the rape case of December, 2010.

A fine of Rs 1 lakh was also imposed on Dwivedi of which, Rs 50,000 was to be paid to the victim.
Special public prosecutor for CBI Rishad Murtaza contended that the appellant had been MLA and was not expected to ravish a helpless poor girl, adding compensation awarded to the victim was low.

While referring to rulings of the apex court, the high court said, "Interim compensation can be granted to the victim. If accused is unable to pay the compensation, state can be saddled with the liability. In this case, accused has been MLA and from record it is apparent that he has capacity to pay compensation."

Lekhi further argued that the ethics committee could not
have dealt with the issue of privilege of a legislator and it should have been dealt with by the privileges committee.
The matter was listed for hearing today after no amicable resolution was arrived at yesterday in Delhi High Court in the dispute between Lamba and Sharma.
The court had on June 8 asked both Lamba and Sharma to appear before it on June 9 "with an open mind" to resolve the issue. The direction had come when the court was hearing a petition filed by Sharma against his suspension from the House on March 31 for next two sessions.

Sharma had moved the court to be allowed to take part in a two-day special session of Delhi Legislative Assembly, which commenced yesterday and culminated today.
Delhi government had earlier told the court that Sharma has not "regretted" on what he had said about Lamba.
Referring to a report of an Ethics Committee of the Delhi assembly on the issue, the government had said that Sharma was given chances to express regret on his remarks but he had refused.
The Ethics Committee had earlier "unanimously" recommended stripping Sharma of his membership for his remarks against Lamba and being "unrepentant" about it.

Sharma had earlier said "my intention was not to hurt Lamba as she is like my sister, but if she felt offended I express regret over it".