Former MP Raj Babbar sentenced to two years in jail for assaulting poll officers in 1996, gets bail

On Thursday, an MP/MLA court in Lucknow sentenced actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar to two years in prison for assaulting polling officers during the general election in Lucknow on May 2, 1996.

Raj Babbar, on the other hand, was granted interim bail and will appeal the MP/MLA court order in the sessions court. Babbar was in court when the verdict was read aloud. He was also fined $6,500 by the court.

In the 1996 general election, Raj Babbar of the Samajwadi Party ran against the BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, which the BJP won by a large margin.

Ambrish Kumar Srivastava, an additional chief judicial magistrate (MP/MLA court), issued the order on Thursday. On June 24, the court concluded the hearing in the case and reserved the order.

On May 2, 1996, polling officer Srikrishna Singh Rana filed a FIR against Raj Babbar, Arvind Yadav, and unidentified persons for assaulting polling staff at polling booth number 192/103 within the Wazirganj police station limits in Lucknow. Arvind Yadav died while the case was being heard.

In the FIR, Babbar was accused of assaulting Srikrishna Singh and Shiv Kumar Singh when they were having food outside the polling booth after voting was over.

Babbar had assaulted the polling staff on the pretext of facilitating bogus voting.

During the hearing, Srikrishna Singh Rana, Shiv Kumar Singh, Manoj Srivastava and two others recoded their statements.