Agency
Rampur(UP): Union Minister and senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was on Wednesday given a one-year jail term by a local Court after he was convicted of violating prohibitory orders during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
57-year-old Naqvi, the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, later got bail.
Eighteen others were also convicted in the case along with Naqvi who was present in the Court.
Judicial Magistrate Manish Kumar held Naqvi guilty under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement), Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 144 of CrPC.
The case relates to a demonstration by BJP workers led by Naqvi at Patwai area of Rampur Parliamentary Constituency in Uttar Pradesh at the time of campaigning for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls during which they allegedly breached the prohibitory orders in force and barged into a police station.
They were demonstrating against the arrest of Rampur BJP chief and seizure of a vehicle of the party. Police had lodged an FIR against 200 people, including Naqvi. Naqvi in his reaction to the Court order said he respected the judiciary. “We respect the judiciary. We will study the judgment and take remedial legal steps,” Naqvi told PTI after he was given bail. (PTI)