Bhopal: An MP-MLA Court in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday sentenced former Congress MLA Vipin Wankhede and three Youth Congress leaders to two years in jail in connection with an eight-year-old case.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 11,000 on each accused found guilty of rioting and damaging public property during a protest near the Chief Minister’s residence in Bhopal in 2016. The protest was organised by the National Student Union of India (NSUI), the students’ wing of the Congress.
The Congress leaders and workers under the banner of NSUI had staged a protest at the then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s residence in Bhopal against the ‘Vyapam Scam’.
The police had placed barricades to stop a protest march heading toward the CM’s House. In the meantime, a clash broke out between the Congress workers and the police personnel. The protesters were also accused of damaging police vehicles.
As Assembly elections were then due in the next two years (2018), the Congress had planned to corner the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issue of ‘Vyapam Scam’ which was being investigated by the Special Task Force of the Madhya Pradesh police. Later, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The police had registered a case against the then Congress MLA from Agar-Malwa, Vipin Vankhede, NSUI leader Vivek Tripathi, Ashutosh Chokse, Dhanji Giri and others, and they were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
–IANS