Lucknow: An MP/MLA court on Thursday sentenced two-time BJP MLA from Mahasi in Bahraich district, Sureshwar Singh, to two years’ imprisonment for threatening a sub-divisional magistrate more than 21 years ago. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,500 on the MLA.
Singh, 64, is set to be disqualified from UP assembly as a Supreme Court order in 2013 mandated that any MP, MLA or MLC who is convicted of a crime and given a minimum of two years’ imprisonment will lose membership of the House with immediate effect. Singh will be the second BJP MLA to be disqualified in a month in UP. In December, the party’s legislator from Duddhi, Ramdular Gond, was sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl.
Singh was present in the court when additional civil judge Anupam Dixit pronounced the verdict. The court subsequently granted him bail. His counsel, Brij Pal Singh, said the order would be challenged in a higher court.
Recalling the crime that took place on September 2, 2002, SHO of Hardi police station, Chandra Prakash Sharma, said: “The then SDM, Lal Mani Mishra, was recording the statement of an accused when Sureshwar Singh entered the officer’s chamber and created obstruction.”
Following this, Mishra lodged an FIR at Hardi police station and the MLA was booked under IPC sections 353 (assaulting public servant) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
Singh had won the Mahasi seat in 2022 for the second consecutive time.
