Delhi MLA Dayanand Chandila, who represents Rajouri Garden Assembly seat, his son Megh Raj Chandila and two supporters were on Tuesday sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court for attempting to kill a person following a dispute relating to money lending nearly seven years ago. The court, however, granted them bail.
Besides the father-son duo, the Patiala House Court additional sessions judge (ASJ) V.K. Bansal convicted Kunwar Nawab Singh and Manoj on June 4 under various sections including 307 (Attempt to murder), and 442 (House trespass) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Considering the defence plea that the MLA is in his late 60s and was not a previous convict, the court said that though the maximum punishment prescribed under Section 307 of the IPC is rigorous life imprisonment, the convicts deserved a lenient sentencing due to these “mitigating circumstances.”
Before granting bail to the convicted persons, Dayanand Chandila, his son Megh Raj Chandila, Kunwar Nawab Singh and Manoj, after furnishing a bail bond and surety bond of Rs 30,000 each, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on each of them.
Noted constitutional expert, Subhash Kashyap, talking to this newspaper over phone, said that “He (Chandila) would continue to be a member of the Delhi Assembly till he files an appeal in the Delhi high court within the statutory period of 90 days.”
An FIR in the said case was registered with the Tilak Nagar police station on December 11, 2003 on the complaint of one Sudesh Chandila.