New Delhi (PTI): The BJP's Purvanchali leader and two-time former MLA from Kirari Anil Jha joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the presence of party supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday.
The development came a few hours after the AAP suffered a big blow as its Najafgarh MLA and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot quit the party.
Kejriwal welcomed Jha to the AAP at party headquarters near Mandi House and dubbed him as one of the "biggest" Purvanchali leaders in Delhi politics. He will boost the AAP not only in Kirari but all over the city, the AAP supremo said.
Party sources claimed that Jha could replace the sitting AAP MLA from Kirari, in the Delhi Assembly polls due in February.
Jha lauded Kejriwal, saying he was influenced by his personality and the work done by the AAP government to improve the lives of Purvanchali people living in unauthorised colonies of the city.
Kejriwal alleged that while the AAP government built 10,000 km of roads and streets, laid 6800 km of sewer lines and provided piped water in 1,650 unauthorised colonies, "the BJP did nothing".
"I want to ask the BJP and its leader Amit Shah, why should Purvanchali people vote for the party. I challenge them to tell one thing they did for the Purvanchali people in Delhi. They promised the registry of properties in these colonies but not a single one could be done in five years," he said.
When asked by reporters Kejriwal, however, refused to comment on Gahlot's resignation from the AAP.
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Bareilly (UP) (PTI): A local court here has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering his mentally challenged wife by repeatedly electrocuting her while she was tied to a cot, lawyers said on Thursday.
Additional district government counsel Harendra Singh Rathore said Additional Sessions Judge Avinash Kumar Singh on Wednesday convicted Vinod Kumar (45) for killing his wife, Satyavati, in Chaina village of Bareilly district and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on him.
According to the prosecution, he was allegedly frustrated with his wife Satyavati's mental illness and often assaulted her.
Rathore said the prosecution examined nine witnesses to establish the charges against him.
As per court records, on the night of May 1-2, 2022, when Satyavati was asleep, Vinod tied her hands and legs to a cot using ropes and then connected an aluminium cable to an electric board to repeatedly administer electric shocks to her.
"She writhed in pain, but the accused continued to electrocute her until she died," the prosecution said.
The court observed that the murder was carried out in an inhuman manner.
After committing the crime, the accused threw the rope and cable on the roof and left for work at a brick kiln around 2 am to create a false alibi.
He later tried to mislead the police and the victim's family by claiming that Satyavati, whose mental condition was unstable, had accidentally died by suicide after grabbing a live electric wire.
However, the victim's brother, Sanjeev, a resident of Shahjahanpur district, suspected foul play and lodged an FIR under sections 498A (husband subjecting wife to cruelty) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code at Nawabganj police station.
During the trial, the prosecution relied on the post-mortem report prepared by Dr Faraz Anwar, who stated that multiple electrocution marks found on different parts of the victim's body could not have been self-inflicted.
The police also recovered the rope and electric wire used in the crime on the accused's identification, officials said.
