New Delhi: An Agra court on Monday stayed the conviction of BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria in a 12-year-old assault case. The Lok Sabha MP from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh welcomed the order and said he finally got justice, according to Hindustan Times.
He was facing disqualification from the Lok Sabha after a special MP-MLA court on Saturday sentenced him to two years in jail and fined him Rs 50,000 for thrashing staffers of Torrent Power Limited in 2011.
The court had found him guilty of vandalizing and thrashing staffers of Torrent Power Limited company's office in Agra's Saket Mall in 2011 by creating a ruckus, Live Law reported.
The BJP MP took to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to share a copy of the court's order.
Recounting the incident, Katheria on Saturday said, “It was a matter related to an SC woman, who irons clothes on the Shamsabad road in Agra. She had complained to me about getting excessive electricity bill from Torrent,” according to Hindustan Times.
"One day the woman came to my office and threatened to commit suicide over the excessive bill," he said.
As per the report, the MP approached the Torrent office and asked officials there to reconsider the bills.
"In 2011, it was BSP's government in Uttar Pradesh and many fake cases were registered against me. However, I have full respect for the court," Hindustan Times quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, the opposition leaders had sought the disqualification of Katheria as Lok Sabha MP claiming his conviction was for an offence graver than what Rahul Gandhi was accused of.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath told PTI on Sunday, "He (Ram Shankar Katheria) should be disqualified. The law is equal for everyone. Now the Supreme Court decision has also come in the case of Rahul Gandhi. There is a big difference between what he (Katheria) did and what Rahul Gandhi is accused of."
On Saturday, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said Gandhi was disqualified within 24 hours of a Surat court convicting the latter in a 2019 defamation case connected to the “Modi surname” remark.
“It will now be seen if Katheria’s (LS) membership is revoked or not. Let’s see how impartially the Lok Sabha Speaker works,” Singh had said.
He served as the Union Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development from November 2014 to July 2016. He has also served as the chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.