A court here on Friday sentenced two times former MLA Bhagwan Sharma to 14 months imprisonment after convicting him in a 2011 case of threatening his political rival before assembly elections.
Special Government Prosecutor Hitendra Verma said, “The MP/MLA court judge Vinay Kumar Singh convicted former MLA Bhagwan Sharma in a 2011 case of threatening a man to not contest the election against him. The court awarded him a jail term of 14 months.”
Bhagwan Guddu Pandit has been a two-time MLA (2007 and 2012) from Dibai constituency of the district on a BSP ticket. He was present in the court on Friday and applied for bail soon after the judgement, which was granted by the court, Verma said.
According to police sources, Rakesh Sharma who was preparing to contest the 2012 assembly election from Dibai constituency alleged in a police complaint that Bhagwan threatened him over the phone and pressurised him to not contest the election.
Rakesh also submitted a recording of the said phone call. Based on the complaint, police lodged an FIR regarding the matter at Shikarpur police station and initiated an investigation. Police later filed a chargesheet in the matter against Bhagwan.
Bhagwan while speaking to the media after securing bail said the case of issuing a threat against him is false and he has faith that he will get justice from a higher court in the matter.
