The Agra district court on Monday stayed the conviction against BJP MP Ram Shankar Katheria in an assault case from 2011. Earlier on Saturday, he was sentenced to two years in jail and fined Rs 50,000 for thrashing staffers of a power company in 2011. Katheria is the MP from Etawah.
During the hearing today, the District Court said the sentence will stay till the appeal is disposed of. District Judge Vivek Sangal, during the hearing, suspended the sentence awarded by the special MP-MLA court two days ago and fixed September 11 for the next hearing, imposing a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.
May lose Lok Sabha membership
The possibility of losing his Lok Sabha membership became more pronounced following his two-year sentence from the MPMLA court. Currently, the district court has halted the sentence's enforcement until the appeal is resolved. However, even after the appeal's conclusion, if Katheria receives a sentence, it could lead to the cancellation of his membership.
As per Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act 1951, if a Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is proven guilty of a crime and receives a sentence of two years or longer, their membership in the respective Parliament or Legislative Assembly will be terminated.
MPs who have lost membership
BJP MP Katheria is not the first leader who is fearing the potential loss of membership. Earlier Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was also disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, although his membership has been reinstated today. Former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav has also lost his parliament membership after being convicted in the fodder scam. Congress Rajya Sabha member Kazi Rashid was also disqualified after being sentenced to 4 years in the MBBS seat scam.
Hamirpur MLAs Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel, Kuldeep Sengar and Abdullah Azam have also lost their membership. Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has lost his membership of the assembly after his conviction in the hate speech case. Vikram Saini, who was a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh, was also disqualified.
