New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) A day after convicting Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti for criminal conspiracy, the Special MP-MLA Court at Delhi’s Rouse Avenue sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment on Thursday.

Congress MLA from Datia Assembly constituency in Gwalior division of Madhya Pradesh was convicted by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday and was sent to judicial custody. On Thursday, after pronouncing the quantum of punishment, the Court granted him bail upon furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000.

The court granted Rajendra Bharti 30 days to file an appeal in the High Court. Co-accused Raghuveer Sharan Prajapati was also sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in the case and granted bail on Thursday.

After the verdict, speaking to IANS, Bharti said, “I respect the court verdict, but this is a political matter. My political rival hatched a conspiracy. The then bank manager is himself a fraud.”

The case pertains to charges of forgery, cheating, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 409, and 120B of the IPC. It relates to alleged irregularities in a bank fixed deposit held in the name of Bharti’s mother, Savitri Devi Shyam, dating back to 1998.

While holding Bharti and co-accused Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati guilty, the court observed that they, along with Savitri Devi and possibly other unknown persons, entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the complainant bank — the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Gramin Vikas Bank, Datia — by continuing to draw interest at a higher rate beyond 2011, despite the original fixed deposit tenure being only three years.

It was Bharti himself who had approached the Supreme Court seeking to transfer his trial from the MP/MLA Court in Gwalior to Delhi.

Acting upon Rajendra Bharti’s petition, the Supreme Court had transferred the trial to the MP/MLA Court at the Rouse Avenue Court complex in Delhi in October 2025. “The bank documents, which are valuable securities, were forged, and the forgery was part of the plan to cheat the bank,” the court noted.

Rejecting Bharti’s claim of political targeting, the court stated that, “The argument that the prosecution’s charge is politically motivated is speculative. The accused has failed to establish any such motive. Instead, this is a case of forgery and cheating that occurred between 1998 and 2011, well before the alleged political rivalry.”

Between 1998 and 2001, Bharti served as the Chairman of the bank’s Board of Directors. At the same time, he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Shyam Sundar Shyam Jan Sahyog Evam Samudayik Vikas Sansthan, headed by his mother.

According to the prosecution, Bharti misused his official position and conspired with bank employee Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati to tamper with bank records, including the ledger, FD counter-slip, and FD receipt. The tenure of the fixed deposit was allegedly extended from three years to ten years, and later to fifteen years, enabling continued accrual of interest at 13.5 per cent.

Notably, Bharti had won the Datia seat in the 2023 Assembly elections by defeating three-time BJP MLA and the state’s high-profile Home Minister Narottam Mishra. Earlier, he had finished runner-up to Mishra in the 2008, 2013, and 2018 elections.

He had won the same seat on a Congress ticket in 1985 and as a Samajwadi Party candidate in 1998.

–IANS

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