Court declares UP MLA 'absconder'

Mau (UP), Jul 3 (PTI) A special MP/MLA court in Mau has declared Samajwadi Party MLA Sudhakar Singh, who represents the Ghosi assembly constituency, as an absconder in a nearly four-decade-old criminal case, a government lawyer on Thursday said.

Despite the court order, Singh continues to actively participate in political activities in his region.

The case dates back to 1986, when Singh was booked by Doharighat Police for allegedly disrupting government work, vandalism, and misbehaving with officials during a protest over power outages at a 400 KV power substation.

Initially, the case was being heard in the then Azamgarh district court, which granted him bail.

After Mau was carved out as a separate district in 1989, the case file was transferred to the Mau court.

On July 25, 2023, the court formally declared him an absconder.

Singh filed a plea before the District Judge on June 4, 2024, after being elected as an MLA following which his case was transferred to a court dealing with MP/MLA cases for further proceedings.

His counsel advocate Virendra Bahadur Pal argued that the arrest warrant was not served properly and claimed Singh was unaware of the court's order.

He submitted a plea to cancel the absconder order.

However, additional government counsel Rajesh Pandey said Singh was fully aware of the legal proceedings.

Pandey also informed the court that Singh even deposited a fine of Rs 2,000 with the District Legal Services Authority in compliance with a court order.

The court refused to grant a stay on the plea and posted the matter on July 10, the government counsel added. PTI KIS AMK AMK