Actor-politician Raj Babbar sentenced to 2 years in jail. Here's why

Actor and Congress leader Raj Babbar has been sentenced to 2 years in jail by a special MP/MLA court in UP's Lucknow in a 26-year-old case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 8,500 on him.

Babbar was present in the court while the verdict was being announced. However, he was also granted an interim bail after that.

The court convicted the Congress leader of voluntarily causing hurt and deterring a public servant and three others from doing their duties during UP assembly elections in 1996.

WHAT HAPPENED? The incident occurred on May 2, 1996, when Raj Babbar was with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and was contesting UP assembly elections. Babbar had a verbal spat with an election officer at one of the polling booths, after which the officer was also manhandled by him and his people.

The name of the officer is Shree Krishna Singh Rana. Rana had lodged an FIR against Babbar and three others at Lucknow’s Wazirganj police station. 

Babbar, along with one Arvind Yadav, was charged with sections 143, 332, 353, 323, 504, 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Apart from the Representation of the People Act, the charge sheet was filed in the court under the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

WHAT’S NEXT? The Congress leader plans to move to a higher court to appeal the decision of the MP/MLA court. His lawyers said that they have a month’s time to appeal the decision in the higher courts.

RAJ BABBAR: THE ACTOR TURNED POLITICIAN

Raj Babbar started his film career in 1970s and turned to politics only in 1989 when he joined Janata Dal party led by VP Singh. He later joined the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and became an MP with the party twice.

He was expelled from the party in 2006 and later joined the Congress in 2008. In 2009, he defeated SP leader Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav from the Firozabad constituency and entered the Lok Sabha for the third time. 

In 2014 general elections, he contested from the Ghaziabad constituency and lost the contest to General VK Singh of the BJP.

He was also appointed as the President of the UP Congress Committee but the party’s performance only went down post 2017 UP assembly polls debacle.