LUCKNOW: Cabinet Minister in Yogi Adityanath government, Rakesh Sachan was on Monday sentenced to one-year imprisonment for possessing illegal arms under the Arms Act. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1500 on him.
However, Rakesh Sachan was subsequently granted bail by a Kanpur court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
The government counsel Sanjay Gupta said that since the sentence awarded to the cabinet minister was for less than three years, the court released him on bail. Sachan was granted bail on a bond of Rs 50,000.
The sword of uncertainty was hanging on the assembly membership of Sachan. Had he got a sentence of three years or more, he would have been stripped off his Assembly membership.
Sachan had surrendered before the court on Monday morning after disappearing from the courtroom with a copy of the court order following his conviction on Sunday.
However, the Kanpur police had launched a probe into his disappearance on the basis of a complaint lodged by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court reader Kamini.
A senior police officer said that the complaint filed by the court reader claimed that the presiding officer held Rakesh Sachan guilty in the case and started the hearing on the quantum of sentence. When the presiding officer went inside his chamber, Sachan’s lawyer sought the file to check the order. In the meantime, Sachan left the court premises with the order copy.
Sachan was booked in a case under Arms Act on August 13, 1991 after he had allegedly failed to produce the licence for a rifle found in his possession in Naubasta area of Kanpur by district police. Sachan had then claimed the rifle belonged to his grandfather, according to the prosecution. He was found guilty by the court in the case on August 6.
However, while going to surrender before the court on Monday morning, Sachan said he was appearing before the court despite not being given any notice, adding the case against him is bogus.
“I am doing so because the media painted me like an absconder, someone who took away the file. Whatever the court will decide I will abide by it.”
After the pronouncement of the quantum of punishment, Sachan said he respected the court's verdict but would go in appeal in sessions court against this decision.