HC refuses to suspend conviction of former Congress MLA

Delhi High Court today refused to suspend the conviction and three-year jail term awarded to former Congress MLA Dayanand Chandela, for attempting to kill a person following a monetary dispute nearly 11 years ago.
A bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi dismissed Chandela's plea for suspension of the conviction saying, "I am not satisfied that a case is made out for grant of an order for suspension/ stay of conviction".
"It does not appear to be a case of exceptional circumstances where the failure to stay of conviction would lead to injustice to the appellant. Pertinently, the last time that the appellant contested the election was in year 2008.

"Even though elections were held in Delhi for Members to the Legislative Assembly even thereafter, appellant (Chandela) did not contest and did not express any desire to contest the elections. For all the aforesaid reasons, I find no merit in this application and dismiss the same, being meritless," the court said.
The court's judgement came on Chandela's plea challenging the trial court's June 2010 decision convicting him for the offences of attempt to murder and house trespass to hurt someone under the IPC and sentencing him to a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs 60,000.
The trial court had convicted Chandela, his son and two supporters in the matter.

The case dates back to December 11, 2003, when an FIR was registered in the Tilak Nagar police station on the complaint of Sudesh Chandela, an alleged political opponent of the convicts. Sudesh had claimed that the accused persons had tried to kill him.
The victim had loaned Rs 50,000 to Sufi, a resident of a slum cluster West Delhi. As the borrower absconded, Sudesh locked his jhuggi. This resulted in a conflict with Manoj, one of the accused who had been eyeing the property, the prosecution had said.
The dispute became violent on December 11, 2003 when the accused, armed with swords and wooden sticks, allegedly attacked the victim at the instance of the then MLA.