In a fresh setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur has ordered the arrest of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. The court’s directive comes in response to Singh’s failure to appear for a hearing in a two-decade-old case, despite a non-bailable warrant issued against him on August 13th.
The case stems from a demonstration held on June 19, 2001, by Singh and others, including former SP leader Anoop Sanda, protesting against poor power supply in the city. The demonstration took place near an overbridge close to the Sabzi Mandi area, under the leadership of Sanda. A case was subsequently registered against them at the Kotwali Nagar Police Station.
On January 11, 2023, all six accused, including Sanjay Singh, former councillors Kamal Srivastava, Vijay Kumar, Santosh, and Subhash Chaudhary, were convicted by Special Magistrate Yogesh Yadav and sentenced to three months imprisonment. However, they were ordered to appear before the MP/MLA court on August 9th. When they failed to do so, Special Magistrate Shubham Verma issued non-bailable warrants against them.
The court in Sultanpur has now directed the police to arrest all the accused and produce them in court by August 28th. Meanwhile, a bail petition has been filed in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court for Singh and Sanda, with a hearing scheduled for August 22nd.
This latest development adds to the legal troubles faced by the Aam Aadmi Party, which has seen several of its leaders, including its national convener Arvind Kejriwal, entangled in various investigations and legal cases in recent times.
