HC stays 3-yr jail sentence of BJP MP in assault case

In a reprieve to Naranbhai Kachhadia, BJP MP from Amreli, the Gujarat High Court today stayed a local court's verdict sentencing him to three-year imprisonment for allegedly assaulting a government doctor.
Justice R H Shukla stayed the order which convicted and sentenced the MP after he moved the HC against the order of Amreli Sessions Court.
Kachhadia had also moved a bail application which was also granted by the high court.
On Wednesday, Amreli Sessions Court had sentenced him to three years imprisonment for assaulting a doctor at a government hospital on January 1, 2013.
The court had, however, suspended the sentence for a month for Kachhadia and four other convicts to facilitate them to approach the HC against the conviction.

Kachhadia might face disqualification as an MP for the sentence under Representation of People Act (RPA), according to which any MP, MLA or MLC, who is awarded a minimum of two years of imprisonment loses membership of the house with immediate effect.
A doctor at Amreli Civil Hospital, Bhimjibhai Dabhi, was attacked by Kachhadia and others when he refused to tend to a patient who was a BJP worker's relative.
The patient, when asked by Dabhi to wait as he was looking after another patient, complained to Kachhadia who came to the hospital and allegedly thrashed Dabhi.