Digvijaya Singh sentenced to one year's 'rigorous' imprisonment in Ujjain assault case

In a massive development in the 2011 BJYM violence case, former Madhya Pradesh CM and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Saturday was sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment in relation to the Ujjain assault case. A court in Indore sentenced six people including Digvijaya Singh to a year’s imprisonment in a case related to a clash with protesting workers of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 2011. The Congress leader informed that he will approach the High Court to challenge the judgement.

An Indore court bench led by Judge Mukesh Nath convicted Singh and former Ujjain MP Premchand Guddu under Indian Penal Code sections 325 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 109 (abetment to assault). However, the court granted bail to all the convicts on a surety of Rs 25,000 each. The court also imposed a Rs 5,000 fine on each of the convicts before granting bail.

Following the judgement, Singh came out to slam the decision and told reporters that he will appeal against the conviction. "This is a 10-year-old case. My name was not even mentioned as accused in the original FIR. Police added my name to the list of accused under political pressure later," he alleged. “I will appeal in the High Court," the Congress leader added.

The Congress leader also took to Twitter to attack the ruling BJP government. Alleging the case being manipulated, Singh said that he, “has never been afraid of BJP” and will never be now. “I am a non-violent person and have always been opposed to violent activities. The order is of the ADJ Court, we will appeal in the High Court,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. Anant Narayan, Jaisingh Darbar, Aslam Lala and Dilip Chaudhary were among others convicted in the case under IPC section 325. Meanwhile, Mahesh Parmar (Congress MLA from Tarana), Mukesh Bhati and Hemant Chauhan were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Ujjain assault case

The case dates back to July 2011 when the BJYM workers had stopped Singh’s convoy in Ujjain. The workers who demonstrated with black flags against the former CM were allegedly beaten up with sticks by nine people including Digvijaya Singh himself. A case was registered against the nine accused including Singh and former Ujjain MP Premchand Guddu for attacking the protesting BJYM workers.

(With agency inputs)

Image: PTI/ UNSPLASH