The Allahabad High Court's decision on Saturday brought a mix of relief and setback for former MP Dhananjay Singh in a 2020 kidnapping and extortion case. While the court granted him bail, it refused to suspend or stay the seven-year imprisonment sentence passed by a district court.
With the high court granting bail to Singh, he will be released from custody. However, the refusal to suspend or stay the seven-year sentence means that Singh will remain ineligible to contest elections, as per legal provisions.
The case stems from a 2020 incident where Singh and his associate Santosh Vikram were convicted of kidnapping and extorting Abhinav Singhal, the project manager of the Namami Gange project. The district court had sentenced both Singh and Vikram to seven years of rigorous imprisonment on March 6.
Singh had filed a criminal appeal against this judgment, seeking relief from the high court. However, despite granting him bail, the high court upheld the seven-year imprisonment sentence.
This development has significant implications for Singh's political aspirations, particularly as his wife, Srikala Reddy, is contesting elections from the Jaunpur parliamentary constituency on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket. Singh's conviction renders him ineligible to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Jaunpur, a setback for his political career.
