Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti has been disqualified from the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly following his conviction in a bank fraud case, officials said on Friday.
The Assembly Secretariat issued a notification late on Thursday night, cancelling Bharti’s membership and declaring the Datia seat vacant.
The action came after a Delhi court sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment in a case involving tampering of bank records to secure illegal interest payments.
The move has triggered a political row in Madhya Pradesh, with the Congress alleging procedural lapses. State Congress president Jitu Patwari claimed that the court had granted Bharti 60 days to appeal against the conviction.
Despite this, he alleged that Assembly Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar opened the Secretariat at midnight and terminated the MLA’s membership.
He described this action as the one taken under pressure from the government and "a blatant violation of democratic process". The notification was issued by Assembly principal secretary Arvind Sharma and released to the media on Friday morning.
Bharti had defeated BJP leader Narottam Mishra from the Datia seat in the 2023 Assembly elections. A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced Bharti and former bank cashier Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati to three years in prison.
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on both.
The duo was convicted a day earlier on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for cheating and using forged documents as genuine.
The case, which originated in Datia, was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court of India in October last year after concerns were raised about intimidation of defence witnesses. Proceedings in a Gwalior court were stayed.
In its 95-page judgment, the court rejected Bharti’s argument that he could not be prosecuted without government sanction. It said the offences related to cheating and forgery.
It also dismissed claims of political targeting. “The argument by Bharti that he is politically targeted or that the prosecution is politically motivated is all speculation. He has failed to prove any such political motives or false implications.”
Instead, it is a case involving the forgery of bank documents and the cheating of a bank between 1998 and 2011, long before the alleged political rivalry claimed by Bharti, the court said.
According to the prosecution, Bharti’s mother, Savitri Devi, deposited Rs 10 lakh in 1998 in Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Grahmin Vikas Bank in Datia in the name of a family trust for a fixed deposit of three years at 13.5 per cent interest.
The tenure was later extended using correction fluid and overwriting, allowing withdrawals of interest payments till 2011. The alleged gain was around Rs 18.5 lakh.
The court said Bharti, who was chairman of the bank at the time, used his position to influence employees and facilitate the payments. It also noted that Prajapati’s initials appeared next to the altered entries.
Proceedings against Savitri Devi were abated after her death in 2019. The Congress said it has filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court. Patwari said senior lawyers, including Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, are representing Bharti in the case.
The Datia seat remains vacant pending further legal proceedings.