An Agra court, on August 7, stayed the conviction of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ram Shankar Katheria in a 2011 assault case.
In his appeal challenging the conviction by the MP/MLA Court, Mr. Katheria said there were no “eyewitnesses” in the case except the victim and many of the witnesses had turned hostile. The court also granted him regular bail.
The court order ensures that Mr. Katheria will not be disqualified from Parliament. Opposition parties have been demanding his disqualification as a Lok Sabha member. They drew parallels between his case and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s defamation case as under the Representation of People Act, 1951, an elected public representative sentenced for two years or more faces immediate disqualification.
