Paddy embezzlement:Ex-MLA challenges court order

Congress-turned-Akali leader Mangat Rai Bansal, who was sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment in a paddy embezzlement case last month by the special CBI court, Patiala, moved the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday, challenging the trial court's order.

Congress-turned-Akali leader Mangat Rai Bansal, who was sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment in a paddy embezzlement case last month by the special CBI court, Patiala, moved the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday, challenging the trial court's order.

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Taking up the petition, justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi admitted the former MLA's petition for hearing with regular cases as per its turn and stayed the fine of Rs 20,000 slapped on him by the trial court. Bansal is currently lodged in the Patiala central jail.

The Patiala special CBI court, after convicting Bansal and 23 others, including Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials and rice millers of Mansa district, for procurement and supply of substandard rice, had sentenced them to jail on April 20 under sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Bansal was elected MLA on the Congress ticket from the Budhlada constituency in 2007. But after losing the 2012 elections from the Maur assembly seat, he switched over to the Shiromani Akali Dal in September last year and was appointed chairman of the Mansa district planning committee.