Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi convicted for poll code violation; gets bail

A local court on Wednesday sent Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to one year in jail for violating prohibitory orders during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Judicial magistrate Manish Kumar held Naqvi guilty under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 144 of CrPC.

Eighteen others were also convicted. Naqvi was later granted bail. The case relates to a demonstration by Bharatiya Janata Party workers led by Naqvi at Patwai area of Rampur parliamentary constituency at the time of campaigning for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls during which they allegedly breached the prohibitory orders in force and barged into a police station.

They were demonstrating against the arrest of Rampur BJP chief and seizure of a vehicle of the party. The police had lodged a first information report against 200 people, including Naqvi.