The Indore district Court on Saturday sentenced Congress leaders, including Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, ex-MP Premchand Guddu and four others to a year each in jail and Rs 5,000 each fine in an 11-year-old physical assault case.
All the six were given bail on personal bond of Rs 25,000 each. Three other accused in the case were acquitted for the lack of evidence, sources said.
Singh tweeted that he has never feared the BJP-RSS and never will, however many “fake cases” might be made against him and however much “punishment” he is given. “This is an ADJ (additional district judge) court order and we will appeal against it in the High Court.”
He added that it is an 11-year-old case and initially his name was not in the FIR but was added later due to political pressure and now he has been sentenced. “I am a non-violent person and have always opposed violent actions,” Singh tweeted.
The case pertains to an incident on July 17, 2011, when activists of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) – the youth wing of BJP – had shown black flags to Singh and other Congress leaders who had arrived in Indore to attend a political programme. The Congress leaders were accused of physically assaulting the BJYM activists. An activist called Amey Apte had allegedly been seriously injured. Cases were registered against nine, including Singh, Guddu, MLA Mahesh Parmar, Dilip Choudhary, Jai Singh Darbar, Aslam Lala, Anant Narayan Meena, Mukesh Bhati and Hemant Chouhan.
On Saturday, Bhati, Chouhan and MLA Parmar were acquitted due to lack of evidence while the other six were sentenced.
Congress spokesman K.K. Mishra said the attack was on the convoy of Singh and the Congress leaders and workers had just retaliated. He, however, added that the court order will be honoured. “Only those who struggle get punishments. The entire party is with Digvijaya Singh and others,” he said.
