Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti disqualified from MP assembly after conviction in cheating case

Following deliberations on the issue on Thursday night, the Vidhan Sabha authorities issued a notification annulling Bharti’s membership from the Datia assembly seat, officials said.

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti has been disqualified from the state legislative assembly following his conviction in a cheating case, officials said on Friday.

Following deliberations on the issue on Thursday night, the Vidhan Sabha authorities issued a notification annulling Bharti’s membership from the Datia assembly seat, they said.

Bharti had defeated former MP home minister and BJP leader Narottam Mishra from the seat in the 2023 assembly polls.

The notification, citing a Delhi court order sentencing Bharti to three years’ imprisonment and declaring the Datia seat vacant, was issued by the assembly’s principal secretary, Arvind Sharma, on the night of April 2 and released to the media on Friday morning.

A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced Bharti and a former bank employee to three years’ imprisonment in a cheating case involving the forging of bank records to obtain illegal interest payments between 1998 and 2011.

Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Bharti and former cashier Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati.

The duo was convicted on Wednesday for the offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of a valuable security, forgery for cheating and using a forged document as genuine.