Lucknow(PTI): BJP MLA Ramdular Gond, who was recently sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl nine years ago, has been disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh assembly, official sources said on Saturday.

According to the Representation of the People Act, a lawmaker sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time. Ahsan Ullah Khan, additional district and sessions judge of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra, had also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Gond. The sum would be given to the rape survivor who is now married and the mother of an eight-year-old girl.
 
Special Public Prosecutor Satyaprakash Tripathi said the court held the MLA from Duddhi seat -- reserved for Scheduled Tribes -- guilty on December 12 and announced the quantum of punishment three days later.
 
The rape incident took place in 2014 and a case was registered against Gond under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) as well as under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on the complaint of the rape survivor's brother.

Gond was not an MLA at that time while his wife was a gram pradhan, Tripathi said. The trial in the case started in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO Act, but was later transferred to the MP-MLA court when Gond was elected as a legislator.

Uttar Pradesh has seen disqualification of several lawmakers after their conviction in separate cases. In October 2022, Samajwadi Party MLA (Rampur Sadar seat) Azam Khan and the BJP's Vikram Singh Saini (Khatauli MLA) were disqualified.

While the action against Khan was taken after being sentenced to three years in a 2019 hate speech case, Saini was disqualified after he got a two-year jail term in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, an MLA from Unnao, was disqualified from the assembly in February 2020 following his conviction in a rape case. He was earlier expelled by the BJP.

Azam Khan's son and Samajwadi Party MLA Abdullah Azam Khan lost his Assembly membership in February this year after being sentenced to two years in jail for staging a sit-in on a highway after his cavalcade was stopped by the police for checking following an attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur on December 31, 2007.

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Vijayapura (Karnataka), Jul 27 (PTI): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said he has no information on the actual reason for Jagdeep Dhankhar resigning as the Vice President.

Dhankhar has to tell what really happened as the matter is between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.

Noting that Dhankhar always took the government's side, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said he never allowed the opposition, whenever it tried to raise issues, whether it was concerning farmers or poor or on foreign policy issues.

"I don't know all those details. He (Dhankhar) was always on the government's side. He should say what happened," Kharge said in response to a question whether Dhankhar was forced to resign as he spoke in favour of farmers.

Speaking to reporters here, Kharge said, "When we raised several issues concerning farmers, poor, international issues or foreign policy, he never used to give us an opportunity (in Rajya Sabha as its Chairman)."

"When we tried to raise issues by giving notices on issues regarding the poor, atrocities against women, dalits and downtrodden, and incidents like Hindu-Muslim clashes, he did not give us an opportunity. It (reason for Dhankhar's resignation as Vice President) is between him and Modi. We don't have any information on that," he added.

In a sudden move, Dhankhar on July 21 evening resigned from his post as Vice President, citing medical reasons, triggering speculation in political circles.

In his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu, Dhankhar said he was stepping down with immediate effect to "prioritise health care".

Responding to a question about changing the Karnataka Congress president, Kharge said, "All those things cannot be said now. Will speak later."

Currently, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar is holding the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president post on an extended tenure.

There have been voices within the ruling Congress in the state to replace him, citing him holding two key positions.

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