The Agra district court and sessions judge on Thursday acquitted BJP MP from Etawah Ram Shanker Katheria of Uttar Pradesh of charges of assaulting employees of a power supply company in 2011. With this, the court also admitted the appeal filed by the BJP MP.
Finding Katheria guilty, the Agra MP/MLA court had imposed a two-year jail term on him in August this year, following which the MP was under threat of being disqualified as a Lok Sabha member.
โThe district court and sessions judge of Agra allowed the appeal filed by Professor Ram Shankar Katheria and acquitted him of the charges leveled against him. The court set aside the order passed by the Agra MP/MLA court that had found the MP guilty and sentenced him to two years in jail,โ said Vijay Ahuja, Katheria's lawyer.
โAfter hearing the arguments in the appeal filed, the district and sessions judge held that a conviction requires proving the charges beyond reasonable doubt, but there was insufficient evidence to sustain it against the appellant Ram Shankar Katheria. The maximum sentence imposed on Katheria was not found justified, therefore the order passed by the trial court was set aside and the appeal was allowed,โ Ahuja added.
โI am grateful to the court,โ said a visibly delighted Katheria while speaking to reporters at the court premises. The Agra district court and sessions judge allowed the appeal on August 7 and granted a stay on the lower court's order until the appeal was disposed of. On August 5, 2023, the Agra Special Magistrate (MP/MLA) court sentenced Katheria to two years in prison and imposed a sentence of $50,000.
The BJP MP also filed petition number 7B under Section 389(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and complained that the lower court had awarded the maximum penalty for the offense without providing sufficient reasons for doing so and therefore therefore, remain in power. granted.
On November 16, 2011, a case was registered at Hari Parvat police station in Agra on the complaint of the staff of Torrent Power Limited, which deals with power supply in Agra, against Katheria for allegedly beating up Torrent officials while listening complaints in his office. The case was registered under sections 147 (rioting) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. Katheria was the BJP MP from Agra at that time.
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