‘Need to have purity in politics’: Allahabad high court rejects Dhananjay Singh’s plea for suspension of sentence, grants bail

Observing that it is the need of the hour to have purity in politics, the Allahabad high court on Saturday rejected former MP Dhananjay Singh’s application for a stay on a Jaunpur court verdict sentencing him to seven years’ imprisonment in a case of kidnapping and extortion of a Namami Gange project manager.

The high court, however, granted Dhananjay bail and directed to list the criminal appeal for final hearing after the paperbook in the case is prepared.

Dhananjay Singh and his associate Santosh Vikram Singh were sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by the MP/MLA court of Jaunpur on March 6 this year. Dhananjay Singh had challenged his conviction before the high court.

Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh passed the order on the criminal appeal filed by Dhananjay Singh.

Rejecting the plea for suspension of sentence, the high court observed, “Now it is the need of hour to have purity in politics, therefore for staying the judgment of conviction, the Courts should exercise its discretionary power sparingly with caution in a rare and appropriate cases. The purpose sought to be achieved by enacting disqualification on conviction for certain offences is to prevent persons with criminal background from entering into politics and governance.”

“Persons with criminal background pollute the process of election as they have no reservation from indulging in criminality to win an election. When persons having long criminal history turn into elected representatives and become lawmaker, they pose a serious threat to the functioning of a democratic system,” the Bench observed.

On criminalisation of politics, the court said, “The very future of our democracy gets imperiled when such offenders masquerade as leaders making a travesty of the entire system. The increasing trend of criminalisation of politics is dangerous and has steadily been eating into the vitals of our democratic polity along with growing corruption of a humongous nature.”

The court took note that Dhananjay Singh secured acquittal in 28 cases and said, “Considering the facts of this case that the appellant No.1 has secured acquittal in 28 criminal cases due to reasons that witnesses turned hostile as pointed out on behalf of the State, which has not been controverted on behalf of the accused- appellant No.1 and that there is no dispute that at present, 10 criminal cases (as noted in Chart-B) are still pending against him, I do not find any good ground, special reason or exceptional case to stay the operation and effect of impugned judgment of conviction dated 05.03.2024 of the appellant no. 1- Dhananjay Singh.”

The MP-MLA court of Jaunpur on March 6, 2024 had sentenced Dhananjay Singh and his aide Santosh Vikram Singh to seven-year rigorous imprisonment in a 2020 case of kidnapping and extortion of Jal Nigam official Abhinav Singhal, who was posted as Namami Gange project manager. The court had pronounced the sentence a day after convicting him on March 5.

This appeal against the sentence was filed by Dhananjay Singh and Santosh Vikram Singh.