Punjab MLA convicted under SC/ST Act moves HC

A fortnight after Tarn Taran Additional Sessions Judge convicted AAP MLA Manjinder Singh under the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the verdict. Among other things, he is also seeking suspension of the conviction and sentence during the pendency of his appeal.

Manjinder Singh was sentenced to four-year rigorous imprisonment, prompting him to file the appeal before the HC. In his plea, the MLA said he was a sitting legislator from a flood-affected constituency and argued that immediate suspension of his sentence was necessary to ensure uninterrupted “relief coordination and oversight of ongoing disaster-response measures”.

The plea, placed before Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya, contended that the trial court failed to properly appreciate certain glaring features of the prosecution’s case, which, according to the appeal, cast a “cloud over the truthfulness of the prosecution story” and resulted in a gross miscarriage of justice.

The application also stated that the appellant had already undergone more than seven-month imprisonment during the trial and that the appeal was unlikely to be heard in the near future, making suspension of the sentence crucial under the prevailing circumstances.

The Bench was told the prosecution case was based on allegations by a women. She alleged the appellant and others, while attending her cousin’s marriage, “allegedly outraged her modesty and thereafter assaulted her family”.