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Uttar Pradesh: In a significant development, BJP MLA Ramdular Gond, recently sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for a rape incident dating back nine years, has been disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh assembly, according to official sources.
The Representation of the People Act dictates that a lawmaker sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more shall face disqualification “from the date of such conviction.” This disqualification continues for an additional six years after serving the sentence.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Ahsan Ullah Khan of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on Gond, directing the amount to be provided to the rape survivor, who is now married and a mother of an eight-year-old girl.
The court found Gond guilty on December 12 and announced the sentence three days later. The rape incident occurred in 2014, and charges were filed against Gond under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, based on the survivor’s brother’s complaint.
Gond was not an MLA at the time of the incident, but when elected, the trial was transferred to the MP-MLA court. Uttar Pradesh has witnessed several disqualifications of lawmakers following convictions in separate cases. Previously, in October 2022, Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan and BJP’s Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified under similar circumstances. Azam Khan’s son, Abdullah Azam Khan, also lost his assembly membership earlier this year due to a jail sentence. This disqualification trend underscores the legal consequences faced by public officials involved in criminal cases.
