LUCKNOW: In a major jolt to jailed Aam Admi Party MP Sanjay Singh, a Lucknow court, on Tuesday, slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on him as compensation to former Uttar Pradesh Jal Shakti Minister, Dr Mahendra Singh in connection to a defamation suit. Dr Mahendra Singh had approached the court with a defamation suit against the AAP leader’s defamatory and derogatory statements accusing him of being involved in alleged corruption in the Jal Jeevan Mission of the UP government.
The Lucknow sessions and district court’s civil judge Kamalkant Gupta also ordered the jailed AA P MP (defendant) to delete the social media posts and the video footages on the press conference in which he had levelled the allegations against the plaintiff, Dr Mahendra Singh, the then Jal Shakti Minister of UP, using defamatory language against him.
In the order, dated January 2, 2024, uploaded on Wednesday, the civil judge said that levelling baseless and frivolous charges against leaders of rival political parties had Singh’s become. He could not present evidence to support his allegations.
The court also said that if the defendant failed to pay the compensation to the plaintiff within two months, “the plaintiff shall be entitled to 6% per annum interest on the principal amount from the date of this judgement till the actual date of payment,” said the court in its order. Sanjay Singh, addressing a press conference in Lucknow on August 2021, accused the UP Jal Shakti department of dubious transactions, calling then Jal Shakti minister ‘paani chor’ (water thief).