Punjab: AAP legislator Naresh Yadav gets two years in jail

Chandigarh : A court in Punjab’s Malerkotla on Saturday sentenced Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Delhi’s Mehrauli, Naresh Yadav, to two years in jail and fined Rs 11,000 in connection with the 2016 Quran sacrilege case.

The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Parminder Singh Grewal announced the quantum of the sentence. A day earlier, the court convicted him after a lengthy legal process.

The conviction marks a significant turn in the controversial case, which has drawn political and public attention over the years. Malerkotla is a Muslim-dominated town.

In March 2021, Yadav along with another accused, Nand Kishore, was acquitted by a lower court as the police failed to prove the allegations.

With the recovery of torn pages of Quran from Malerkotla town on June 24, 2016, the police had initially registered a case against Vijay Kumar and two others, including Nand Kishore and Gaurav Kumar. Later the name of legislator Yadav was added on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

After Yadav’s 2021 acquittal, local resident Mohammad Ashraf filed a criminal appeal challenging the decision on April 19, 2021. The appeal led to review of the case that resulted in his conviction.

In 2018, Yadav had sought an inquiry into a suspicious Rs 90 lakh transaction in Vijay Kumar’s bank account, alleging connections with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Police had registered a case under Sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 124-A (sedition), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code in Malerkotla. The court had dropped the sedition charges in the case.

Vijay Kumar, the main accused, had triggered violence and was a former RSS volunteer.