Parliament Has To Show Collective Will To Restrain Criminals From Entering Into Politics, Parliament Or Legislature - Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has held that parliament should show its collective will to restrain criminals from entering into politics, Parliament or legislature to save democracy.

The Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh observed that 43 per cent of the members of Lok Sabha who got elected in the 2019 general elections had criminal cases including cases related to heinous offences pending against them.

The Court noted that there were several instances where persons charged with serious and heinous offences like murder, rape, kidnapping and dacoity got tickets to contest elections from political parties and even got elected in a large number of cases.

"Earlier, 'Bahubalis' and other criminals used to provide support to candidates on various considerations including caste, religion and political shelter but now criminals themselves are entering into politics and getting elected as the political parties do not have any inhibition in giving tickets to candidates with criminal background including those having heinous offence(s) registered against them", the Court observed.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh made this observation while adjudicating upon the bail plea of Atul Kumar Singh Alias Atul Rai, Member of Parliament (Bahujan Samajwadi Party).

Notably, he was involved in 23 criminal cases, which included cases of kidnapping, murder, rape and other heinous offences.

In this case, a case was registered against him under Sections 376, 420, 406, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint by the victim, who later on attempted to commit suicide along with her friend within the precincts of the Supreme Court. Both of whom later died.

It was alleged that when the accused applicant and his goons were not successful in breaking down/winning the victim and the witness, they put all kinds of pressure and tortured them physically and mentally.

"This Court, looking at the heinousness of offence, might of the accused, evidence available on record, impact on society, possibility of accused tampering with the evidence and influencing/ winning over the witnesses by using his muscle and money power does not find that there is a ground to enlarge the accused-applicant on bail at this stage", the Court observed.

Accordingly, his bail application was rejected.

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