E-Paper
Raj Babbar jailed for 2 years in 26-year-old case, gets bail
On May 2, 1996, polling officer Srikrishna Singh Rana lodged an FIR against Babbar, Arvind Yadav and unidentified persons for assaulting the polling staff at booth number 192/103 under Wazirganj police station limits in Lucknow. Arvind Yadav died over the course of the hearing.
The MP/MLA court in Lucknow on Thursday awarded a two-year prison term to actor and politician Raj Babbar in connection with a 26-year-old case for assaulting polling officers during the general elections on May 2, 1996.
Babbar, who was present in the court on Thursday, got an interim bail and has 30 days to challenge the verdict in the sessions court.
Additional chief judicial magistrate (MP/MLA court) Ambrish Kumar Srivastava awarded the sentence to Babbar and also imposed a ₹6,500 on him. The court had completed the hearing in the case on June 24 and reserved the order.
On May 2, 1996, polling officer Srikrishna Singh Rana lodged an FIR against Babbar, Arvind Yadav and unidentified persons for assaulting the polling staff at booth number 192/103 under Wazirganj police station limits in Lucknow. Arvind Yadav died over the course of the hearing.
In the FIR, Babbar was accused of assaulting Srikrishna Singh and Shiv Kumar Singh outside the polling booth after the voting was over on the pretext of facilitating bogus voting.
Srikrishna Singh Rana, Shiv Kumar Singh, Manoj Srivastava and two others recorded their statements.
During the 1996 general elections, Babbar contested the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who won by a huge margin.
