PATNA: A sitting MLA of Jharkhand’s main Opposition party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), was on Wednesday convicted and sentenced to three years in jail by a local court in an 18-year-old case of coal theft.
The court of Ramgarh sub-divisional judicial magistrate Arti Mala found the MLA guilty of the charges and pronounced the sentence. The MLA’s brother Chitragupta Mahto and three others were also convicted and handed the same sentence in the case.
Mahto, who represents Gomia constituency, was taken into custody briefly after the sentencing, but he was released after his lawyers moved a bail application in the same court, which granted him bail.
The conviction is set to cost Mahto, 50, his membership of the state Assembly, thus bringing JMM’s strength in the House to 18. With the sentence being more than two years, the MLA will also be debarred from contesting any elections for the next eleven years.
Mahto who hails from Ramgarh, was booked by police in 2010 after a huge quantity of illegally mined and procured coal was recovered from two hard coke washeries he owned at Rajrappa. The chargesheet filed by police mentioned that he had been directly facilitating the use of stolen coal in the two washeries, said sources.
“He will challenge the conviction and sentence in the high court very soon. He had been framed in the case by his rivals in AJSU (All Jharkhand Students Union),” said JMM leader and Baharagora MLA Kunal Sarangi. He denied that the conviction would prove a major setback to his party.
This is the second conviction of a sitting MLA in Jharkhand during the tenure of the current Assembly. In June 2015, Lohardaga MLA Kamal Kishore Bhagat of AJSU was convicted by a Ranchi court and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years in an attempt to murder case.
Before joining JMM, Yogendra Mahto had been with Congress and AJSU.