The Allahabad High Court granted bail to former MP Dhananjay Singh on Saturday but declined his plea to suspend or stay a seven-year imprisonment sentence imposed by a district court in a 2020 kidnapping and extortion case.
Following the high court order, Singh will be released on bail, but he will be ineligible to contest the election.
Jaunpur Court
The MP-MLA court in Jaunpur sentenced Singh and his associate Santosh Vikram to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2020 case involving the kidnapping and extortion of Namami Gange project manager Abhinav Singhal. Upon hearing the criminal appeal filed by the former MP and his associate on April 24, Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh reserved the order.
This appeal was filed against the judgement passed by the special judge, Jaunpur MP/MLA on March 6.
Srikala Reddy
Singh’s wife, Srikala Reddy, is running in the elections for the Jaunpur parliamentary constituency on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.
Singh was purportedly gearing up to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Jaunpur seat, but his conviction rendered him ineligible to participate in the election.