Jaipur: The Congress party has urged Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani to take suo motu cognisance of the conviction of ruling BJP MLA Kanwar Lal Meena in a criminal case.
A delegation from the grand old party, led by Leader of Opposition (LoP) Tika Ram Jully and state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, visited the state assembly on Monday to submit a memorandum to Speaker Devnani, drawing his attention to the Rajasthan High Court’s confirmation of a three-year jail term for Anta (Baran) MLA Meena.
In the Speaker’s absence, the memorandum was submitted to the Assembly Secretary. It demanded the termination of Meena’s membership from the assembly.
A Rajasthan High Court bench headed by Justice Umashankar Vyas recently upheld the Additional District Judge (ADJ) Aklera court’s verdict, sentencing Meena to three years’ imprisonment in a 20-year-old case involving the criminal intimidation of an on-duty public servant at gunpoint.
According to the case records, on February 3, 2005, Meena allegedly threatened then SDM Ram Niwas Mehta at gunpoint, pressuring him to approve a re-polling for the post of Deputy Sarpanch in Khatakhedi village near Manohar Thana. While the trial court had initially acquitted Meena, the ADJ court in Aklera convicted him in 2020, imposing a three-year sentence and a fine of ₹3 lakh.
State Congress president Dotasra said that, as per legal provisions, any MLA or MP convicted and sentenced to two years or more in prison stands disqualified from legislative membership.
LoP Jully added, “Therefore, the Assembly Speaker should act on the matter and declare Meena disqualified. Continuation of his membership may amount to contempt of court.”
