Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi gets bail, courts stays conviction

RAMPUR: A district court has stayed the conviction of Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was sentenced to one year imprisonment for violating prohibitory orders in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha election, and granted him bail.

District judge PK Goyal granted relief to the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs yesterday after his lawyers contended that police action was "politically motivated" and there was no evidence to support their allegations against Naqvi.

They submitted that no violence took place on the day mentioned by the police as the BJP workers had peacefully demonstrated against alleged victimisation of political workers.

The Union Minister was awarded one year sentence after he along with 19 other BJP activists was convicted by a local court on January 14 in connection with a case filed in the court on 24th April 2009 by Rampur Police.

Police had alleged that Naqvi, a candidate in the Lok Sabha polls from Rampur seat, had lead a demonstration before Patwai police station, violating model code of conduct.

It was also stated in the complaint that a mob of BJP activists had barged into the police station to get back BJP's seized vehicle and to get the party's district president Khayali Ram Lodhi forcibly released.

The court had found Naqvi guilty under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 144 of the Cr.PC.

Naqvi had been granted interim bail.