BHOPAL: In a major setback to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, a special MP/MLA court in Delhi on Wednesday convicted senior party MLA Rajendra Bharti in a bank fixed deposit cheating and forgery case.
After convicting the three-time legislator from the Datia seat in northern Madhya Pradesh, the special court sent the 68-year-old to Tihar Jail. The court will decide the quantum of punishment for Bharti and co-convict Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati on Thursday.
If the court sentences Bharti to two years or more in prison, he will automatically lose his membership in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.
Bharti had won the Datia seat in the 2023 Assembly elections by defeating three-time BJP MLA and the state’s high-profile Home Minister, Narottam Mishra. Earlier, he had finished runner-up to Mishra in the 2008, 2013, and 2018 elections. Prior to that, he had won the same seat on a Congress ticket in 1985 and as a Samajwadi Party candidate in 1998.
This significant legal development comes 23 days after the Madhya Pradesh High Court, on March 9, nullified the November 2024 bypoll victory of first-time Congress MLA Mukesh Malhotra from Vijaypur (Sheopur), where he had defeated the state’s Forest Minister, Ramniwas Rawat.
However, 11 days later, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court’s order, allowing Malhotra to retain his MLA status. The apex court, however, barred him from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial elections to three seats from Madhya Pradesh.
The case in which Bharti was convicted pertains to charges of forgery, cheating, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 409, and 120B of the IPC. It relates to alleged irregularities in a bank deposit held in the name of Bharti’s mother, Savitri Devi Shyam, dating back to 1998.
While holding Bharti and co-accused Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati guilty, the court observed that they, along with Savitri Devi and possibly other unknown persons, entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the complainant bank — the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Gramin Vikas Bank, Datia — by continuing to draw interest at a higher rate beyond 2011, despite the original fixed deposit tenure being only three years.
“The bank documents, which are valuable securities, were forged, and the forgery was part of the plan to cheat the bank,” the court noted.
Rejecting Bharti’s claim of political targeting, the court stated: “The argument that the prosecution is politically motivated is speculative. The accused has failed to establish any such motive. Instead, this is a case of forgery and cheating that occurred between 1998 and 2011, well before the alleged political rivalry.”
The conviction comes six months after the Supreme Court transferred the trial from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi, acting on Bharti’s plea that defence witnesses were being intimidated.
All About the Case
In August 1998, when Bharti was an MLA from the Samajwadi Party during the Digvijaya Singh-led Congress government, a fixed deposit of ₹10 lakh was made in the name of his mother, Savitri Devi Shyam, at the District Cooperative Rural Development Bank, Datia, for a period of three years at an annual interest rate of 13.5%.
Between 1998 and 2001, Bharti served as the Chairman of the bank’s Board of Directors. At the same time, he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Shyam Sundar Shyam Jan Sahyog Evam Samudayik Vikas Sansthan, headed by his mother. This meant he had a vested interest in both entities.
According to the prosecution, Bharti misused his official position and conspired with bank employee Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati to tamper with bank records, including the ledger, FD counter-slip, and FD receipt. The tenure of the fixed deposit was allegedly extended from three years to ten years, and later to fifteen years, enabling continued accrual of interest at 13.5%.
Through this manipulation, the accused allegedly secured an annual wrongful gain of ₹1.35 lakh from 1999 to 2011 for his mother and the organisation causing corresponding losses to the bank.
After Bharti stepped down as chairman, a bank audit flagged the unauthorized extensions. Following this, a complaint was filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Datia on July 29, 2015, based on directions from the Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
The case was later transferred to Delhi in October 2025 on the orders of the Supreme Court.