Sentenced to life, absconding BJP MLA surrenders

Absconding after being sentenced to life by the Allahabad high court for murder of five members of a family over two decades back, BJP legislator Ashok Singh Chandel on Monday surrendered before a district court in Hamirpur, about 200 kilometres from here.

Nine others, who had also been sentenced to life in the same case, also surrendered with Chandel before the court.

Chandel had been absconding since April 20 this year, when the high court pronounced its verdict.

The BJP MLA, who faces several criminal cases, stormed the court premises with hundreds of his supporters despite the presence of a large police contingent, sources here said.

Sources said that the cops tried to arrest Chandel but his supporters, who outnumbered the police, managed to take him inside the court room.

Chandel's supporters raised slogans in his support while the court deliberated on his surrender application. Police had to make a lathi charge to disperse the supporters.

According to the police, the saffron party MLA and his henchmen had shot dead five members of a family after an altercation in Hamirpur district in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh.

He was acquitted by the district court. The Allahabad high court, however, reversed the decision and sentenced Chandel and nine others to life imprisonment.