AAP MP fails to appear in 2001 protest case

Sultanpur: AamAadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday failed to appear in an MP/MLA court here in connection with a 23-year-old case against him. Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, was scheduled to appear along with Samajwadi Party leader Anup Sanda, who also did not turn up.

On August 13, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Singh, Sanda, and four others, with the hearing scheduled for August 20.

Their advocate, Madan Singh, said a bail petition for Singh and Sanda has been filed in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, with a hearing set for August 22. The date for the next hearing in the MP/MLA court of Special Magistrate Shubham Verma will be determined later in the evening, he said.

On June 19, 2001, a demonstration was held near an overbridge close to the city’s Sabzi Mandi area under the leadership of former SP MLA Anoop Sanda against the poor power supply. Sanjay Singh, along with former councillors Kamal Srivastava, Vijay Kumar, Santosh and Subhash Chaudhary had taken part in it. A case was registered against all of them at the Kotwali Nagar Police Station.

All six were convicted by Special Magistrate Yogesh Yadav on January 11, 2023, and awarded three years imprisonment. On August 9, the six were ordered to appear before the MP/MLA court. When they failed to do so, Special Magistrate Shubham Verma issued non-bailable warrants against all of them.