MP-MLA court upholds 45-day jail sentence of AAP leader Sanjay Singh, others in 2001 case

Sultanpur: An MP-MLA court here on Tuesday upheld a 45-day jail sentence for Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Anoop Sanda in a 23-year-old case related to a road blockade protest.

According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on June 19, 2001, when Anoop Sanda, then a leader of the Democratic Socialist Party, and Singh along with their supporters blocked the road near a flyover here during a protest over power issues.

The special court's then-magistrate Yogesh Yadav had convicted all six accused, including Sanda and Singh, on January 11, 2023, sentencing them to 45 days in jail and imposing a fine of Rs 1,500 each.

Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Pandey stated that Special Sessions Judge (MP/MLA) Ekta Verma dismissed the appeal of Singh and Sanda on Tuesday against their conviction and sentence.

Sanjay Singh, one of the founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which was floated in 2012, hails from Sultanpur district and was earlier associated with the Democratic Socialist Party.

"In 1994, he started an organisation called ‘Sultanpur Samaj Sewa Sangathan' ...

"He worked for 16 years for hawkers’ rights, where he met socialist leader Raghu Thakur of his Democratic Socialist Party," according to the AAP website.

The defence was represented by lawyers Kamlesh Kumar Singh, Karuna Shankar Dwivedi, Arvind Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh and Vibhash Srivastava.