The
Allahabad High Court on Saturday granted bail to former MP Dhananjay Singh but
refused his plea to suspend or stay a seven-year imprisonment sentence passed
by a district court in a 2020 kidnapping and extortion case.
After
the high court order, Singh will be released on bail but he cannot contest the
election.
The
MP-MLA court in Jaunpur on March 6, sentenced Singh and his associate Santosh
Vikram to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2020 case of the kidnapping
and extortion of Namami Gange project manager Abhinav Singhal.
After
hearing the criminal appeal filed by the former MP and his associate on April
24, Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh had reserved the order.
This
appeal was filed against the judgement passed by the special judge, Jaunpur
MP/MLA on March 6.
Singh's
wife Srikala Reddy is contesting elections from the Jaunpur parliamentary
constituency on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.
Singh
was reportedly preparing to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Jaunpur seat
but his conviction made him ineligible to contest the election.