Lucknow: Ram Shankar Katheria, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, may lose his membership from parliament as an MP/MLA court on Saturday sentenced him to two years imprisonment and a penalty of ₹50,000 in a 12-year-old case of brawl and manhandling. In a similar incident, in April of this year, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Afzal Ansari from Gazipur, UP, had lost his membership from Lok Sabha after being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in a gangsters act case.
The MP/MLA court in Agra found the BJP MP guilty of brawl and assault on an official of Torrent Power Limited in 2011. Although Katheria got bail immediately after the sentence, his membership from parliament is now in danger.
2011 brawl case
The 12-year-old brawl case dates back to November 16, 2011, when Katheria visited the Torrent office in Agra with dozens of his supporters to pursue a case of power theft. During a discussion with Torrent officials, Katheria assaulted the manager, Bhavesh Rasik Lal Shah. At that time, he was MP from Agra. Katheria has been MP from Agra twice and was a Union Minister of State in the previous Modi Government.
Presently, he holds the position of Member of Parliament from the Etawah parliamentary constituency. The Torrent manager, Shah, had lodged an FIR at the Hari Parbat police station in Agra against BJP MP and his supporters. The police had filed a case against the BJP MP under sections 147 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
After the court verdict, Katheria stated that he would appeal to the higher court to seek a stay and quashing of the sentence. He claimed that at the time of the incident, the BSP Government was in power and had falsely implicated him in this case. Katheria had previously made headlines in 2019 when he and his supporters thrashed toll plaza employees after being asked to pay the toll.
