Digvijaya Singh sentenced to one year jail in decade-old case, granted bail

Bhopal, March 26 (IANS) The district court in Indore on Saturday convicted veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh and six others in an 11-year-old case, and sentenced them to one-year imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each of them.

However, later on Saturday evening, all the convicted persons were released on bail after furnishing an amount of Rs 25,000 each.

After getting bail, Singh said that he has been falsely framed in the case, and he will challenge the decision in the high court.

Three other accused in the case were acquitted in the absence of appropriate evidence against them.

The case dates back to 2011, when Singh along with then Congress MP Premchand Guddu had gone to Ujjain to attend a programme organised by the party.

While Singh was on his way to Ujjain, some members of the BJP's youth wing had shown black flags to him, which did not go down well with the Congress workers, leading to clash between both sides.

In the incident, a BJP youth wing leader, Amay Apte, had received severe injuries while some others also got injured. The youth wing of the BJP had lodged a complaint against Congress leaders, including Singh, accusing them of attempt to murder.

Apart from Singh and Guddu, the other accused in the case were -- Mahesh Parmar (ex-MLA), Dilip Choudhari, Jay Singh Darbar, Aslam Lala, Nanant Narayan Meena, Mukesh Bhati and Hemand Chouhan.

Out of the nine accused in the case, three -- Parmar, Bhati and Chouhan -- have been acquitted, while six others were sentenced to one-year imprisonment.

Congress spokesperson K.K. Mishra said, "We welcome the court's decision. The Congress knows that Digvijaya Singh and other party leaders were framed in the matter by the BJP. As Congress workers, we stand with Singh and others who were convicted in the false case. We will challenge te order in the high court."