2001 Protest Case: AAP Leader Sanjay Singh Fails to Appear Before Court

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh failed to appear in an MP/MLA court in Sultanpur. The court hearing was in connection with a 23-year-old case.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Anup Sanda, who was also expected to be present, did not appear in court either.

The case dates back to June 19, 2001, when a demonstration was held near an overbridge close to the Sabzi Mandi area in Sultanpur, protesting against poor power supply.

The protest, led by then-SP MLA Anup Sanda, involved Sanjay Singh and former councillors Kamal Srivastava, Vijay Kumar, Santosh, and Subhash Chaudhary. A case was registered against all six at the Kotwali Nagar Police Station.

On January 11, 2023, Special Magistrate Yogesh Yadav convicted all six individuals and sentenced them to three years of imprisonment. The MP/MLA court, presided over by Special Magistrate Shubham Verma, had ordered them to appear on August 9, 2024. When they failed to do so, non-bailable warrants (NBWs) were issued against them.

A fresh hearing was scheduled for August 20, 2024, but neither Singh nor Sanda attended. Their advocate, Madan Singh, informed that a bail petition for Singh and Sanda has been filed in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, with a hearing slated for August 22, 2024.

The date for the next hearing in the Sultanpur court will be determined later this evening, according to the advocate.